Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer
by Ten-Tailed-God
Summary: In this world there are some people who have super speed, magnetism, and even the ability to turn themselves into living lightning rods. So is it so strange to be able to talk to weapons...Is it?
1. Chapter 1

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter One: Talking Swords and Giant Burds**

* * *

Jaune felt a bit of relief that he managed to get a partner in this forest and not get killed. He didn't actually think he would get this far what with him never having gone into one of the previous combat academies until now. While both of walked through this forest that was absolutely teaming with Grimm, Jaune stopped when he heard a few loud shots go off in the air.

"What was that?" He asked his red headed partner. Pyrrha stopped as well and turned her head in the direction of the noise.

"Gunshots, our comrades have encountered the enemy." She stated in a matter-of-fact tone before trudging once again through the forest. Jaune found no flaws with this logic and followed behind her as she lifted up a tree branch from out of her way. When she let the tree branch go, much to Jaune's displeasure, it smacked him in the face which knocked him onto the ground where he put his hand upon the stinging cut that was on his face.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she turned to look at him, "Sorry," she apologized.

"It's okay, just a scratch." Jaune pushed himself off the ground while Pyrrha walked over to him.

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" She asked as she now stood in front of him. When Jaune heard this word he felt confused since he had never heard of it before.

"Huh?" He replied.

"Your aura," Pyrrha restated. Pyrrha's green eyes slightly narrowed as her mind began to process this. "Do you even know what aura is?" She asked. Jaune thought that all of what he did in trying to get into beacon would be destroyed by this little question, so he did what came naturally, he lied.

"Of course I do," Jaune replied with a false bravado while internally he was really thinking, 'The jig is up.' What Jaune did next, he realized was where he should have shut his big mouth, "Do you know what aura is?" He asked while pointing a finger at Pyrrha. Pyrrha had a small smile on her face when Jaune asked this question.

"Aura is the manifestation of our souls. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?" She asked. Now that Jaune thought about it, it was usually either his parents or sisters who were watching him but the same could probably be applied to this moment right now.

"Uhh, yeah." By then Jaune began to listen in on what Pyrrha was saying in some desperate attempt to still be able to not blow his cover in Beacon. If he couldn't show that he knew what he was doing, then he would get kicked out of this place and he didn't want to go back to his parent's house, where he would end up going to a normal school where he would leave to get a normal job and never have an exciting moment for the rest of his life. No, he wanted to be a hero like his grandfather, just like all the stories that he used to tell of his time fighting to help people.

"Now, close your eyes and concentrate." Pyrrha ordered as she walked up closer to Jaune. Jaune did as the young warrior asked with no objections as she put her hand on the side of his head. When he did this Pyrrha opened her eyes widely and began the process of awakening the latent aura within Jaune. Both teens began glowing, Pyrrha a red while Jaune's was white.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory and rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. Pyrrha then place a hand upon Jaune's armored chest. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." She stopped glowing and released Jaune before she felt the fatigue of unlocking Jaune's aura kick in. Jaune took the moment to enjoy this new found feeling of freedom with his aura unlocked. It felt like nothing he had ever felt before.

Jaune eventually looked at Pyrrha who was leaning in fatigue which managed to cut down his power high that he was feeling. "Pyrrha!"

"I'm alright," She replied as she pulled herself back up, "I used my aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own." As she said this Jaune felt the cut on his cheek instantly heal which Pyrrha noticed as well and let a smirk adorn her face, "You have a lot of it." She stated. "Eventually you'll be able to unlock your Semblance which is an ability you gain from the use of aura."

"Sweet." Jaune replied with genuine happiness. This was the first step in a long line of them that would eventually allow him to become a hero. He felt the sword attached to his hip that his grandfather had given him before he left for the academy and was reminded of why he was doing all of this. And even better, he would eventually gain a cool superpower from having his aura unlocked. What could possibly go wrong?

"Hey laddie!" A wizened voice shouted. Jaune looked up and around the area, much to the confusion of Pyrrha.

"What's wrong Jaune?" She asked. Jaune shook his head before looking at his partner.

"Nothing, I think I was just hearing things." He replied.

"Hearing what?" The wizened voice asked. Jaune looked around the area again in an effort to find this voice.

"Who's there?" He asked loudly.

"Jaune, who are you talking to? There's no one here?" Pyrrha asked in worry for her partner's wellbeing.

"I keep hearing this old guy talking to me, and I don't know where he is." Jaune responded.

"Hey, I'm not old! I'm only eighty eight years old, boy!" The wizened voice responded with indignation. Jaune pulled his sword out of it's sheath and held it before himself to the woods where he expected the old man to pop out.

"Where are you?" Jaune asked as he held the slightly heavy blade.

"Alright, I need you to look at your hands." Jaune did so with some skepticism. "Now what is in your hands?"

"A sword."

"And there we go," Jaune freaked out and dropped his sword. "Hey, watch it! I hate getting dropped. Do you know how many times your grandfather dropped me before he could hold me, more than enough BLOODY TIMES!" The sword shouted.

"How can my sword talk?" Jaune asked. Internally Jaune felt this must be one giant joke, either that or a dream.

"Well, you did just activate your Semblance laddie. That probably did it. Then again, you probably shouldn't have expected anything different with your luck. I mean come on, you get accepted into an academy with fake transcripts, and then for you initiation, you get literally launched into a forest."

"This can't be real," Jaune said in an effort to keep calm.

"Oh it certainly is, unless the ability to use super speed isn't, then I think that being able to talk to weapons is a small rung on the totem pole if I do say so myself. Anyway laddie, name's Crocea Mors, and from now on we're gonna be partners, you got that?" Crocea asked.

"…Okay." Jaune replied nervously. Pyrrha on the other hand watched what appeared to be a one sided conversation with Jaune in slight fear that her partner may have gone insane.

"So, this is my partner's partner huh. I think that Pyrrha could do better." A young voice stated arrogantly. Jaune turned to look in Pyrrha's direction where he heard the voice originate.

"Who is that?"

"I'm on Pyrrha's back." When Jaune heard that he looked at the spear and shield combination that Pyrrha was carrying. "Yeah, so I guess he can hear us, right old timer?" The spear asked Crocea.

"Don't call me old you new scrap of metal!" Jaune could feel the anger boiling up in Crocea. "Now, we need to help the lad here because I think his partner is just about ready to ditch the boy, and I can't have that happen."

"Yeah, whatever old man." The spear replied before focusing it's attention on Jaune. "Alright waste of skin, tell my partner here that when she made me, she accidentally spilled coffee on my blade during the creation process."

"Why?" Jaune asked.

"Because, only she and I know about that. It'll also help prevent her from thinking that you're crazy. By the way, waste of skin, my name is Miló. You better remember it." With that, Miló stopped talking. Jaune looked at Pyrrha with as much confidence that he could muster, he decided to tell her.

"When you were making Miló, you spilled coffee on him during the creation process!" Jaune said quickly to his partner. Pyrrha's eyes widened when she heard this.

"How do you even know about that?" She asked.

"He just told me. Also I think I discovered my Semblance." Jaune replied. Pyrrha tried to process all of this much to her dismay as she stared at Jaune.

"Jaune, I think that I may just believe you." Pyrrha replied.

"Well at least you have that going for ya, laddie. Now we just need to complete this objective of yours and you can begin your new life at Beacon." Crocea stated with a excited tone.

"Alright. I guess now that we know what my Semblance is; we can get this test done with." Jaune began to walk past Pyrrha who took a moment to stare at her weapon before she looked up and caught up to Jaune.

As the duo walked around the forest they eventually came up to a cave where Jaune got an idea. "Hey Pyrrha," Pyrrha turned to look at Jaune.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Do you think our objective is in that cave over there?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha pulled out Miló and Akoúo.

"It might be." Pyrrha responded.

"Might not be the best idea laddie. I don't think that this artifact would be hidden in a random cave in the middle of nowhere." Crocea replied.

"But what if it is?" Jaune asked.

"Trust me, it's probably not." Jaune held his arm in front of Pyrrha who stopped next to him.

"What is it Jaune?" She asked.

"Crocea keeps telling us to not go into the cave. I think that I'm going to listen to him." Jaune let his arm fall to his side and then he began walking in the opposite direction. Pyrrha shrugged and walked with him away from the dark cave.

"So Jaune, could you tell me about yourself?" Pyrrha asked as they trudged through the woods.

"What do you want to know?"

"Do you have any family?"

"Yeah, seven sisters, my mom and dad, and my grandpa." Jaune looked down at the sword in his hands, "My grandpa was the one who made me want to become a hunter in the first place." Jaune looked back up at Pyrrha, "So what about you? Got any family?"

"Just my mother."

"That's pretty cool. At least you don't have to fight over the bathroom in the morning." Jaune replied with a grin.

Now that Jaune thought about it, his grandpa was really supportive of his decision to go to Beacon unlike that of his parents. He could even remember the night before when he was packing…

* * *

 _As Jaune put his clothes into his suitcase, he could hear yelling from downstairs in the house. One of the voices was that of his grandpa who apparently was putting up quite a fight against his parents. When Jaune finished packing all of his clothes, he opened his bedroom door and slowly tiptoed over to the stairwell by his room. He noticed that two of his sisters were already there listening in on the argument. All of them had slightly frightened looks as they listened._

 _When his sisters noticed him they silently waved him over to where they were crouching. Jaune nodded and walked over and crouched where they were. Jaune then listened in on what was unfolding downstairs._

" _Dad, you know that Jaune hasn't attended a combat school before, why did you even give him that hairbrained scheme in the first place!?" Jaune's father asked._

" _I didn't attend a combat school when I first went to war. The boy will do fine."_

" _Those were different times Acier, its peaceful now!" Jaune's mother screamed._

" _But you two are his parents; you should support your kids on whatever they want to do."_

" _I will support my son on most things, but going to a combat academy that he clearly isn't ready for is not one of them!"_

" _What, so he can just become a baker like you? The boy has potential that you keep squandering by ignoring what he wants to do. I remember when you first got into your combat school…"_

" _Yeah, but then I found out what it all leads to, and that is death and despair." Jaune's father said in a solemn voice._

" _You need to let Jaune live his life and not just coddle him up in this town."_

" _If it means that he's safe, then yes. Send out the other parent's children to fight against the Grimm, but don't send my son to die out there!" Jaune could hear his mother clearly crying right now._

" _It's alright Beatrice; it's what the boy wants to do. Let him live his life the way he wants and when he comes back home for his break, I'll teach him all I know so that he'll be even better when he goes back to school. Just give Jaune a chance." Jaune's father took a deep breath._

" _Fine, I'll let Jaune go, but if he doesn't come back home in one piece, then I want you to never bother this family again. I want you gone!" Jaune could hear the table being slammed, "Do we have a deal, dad?"_

" _Yes. I'm willing to put my faith in the boy, are you?" With that Acier walked out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. All the siblings who had crowded the stairs a minute ago had begun their flight from the stairs and back into their rooms, Jaune included._

 _Jaune set about pretending to pack his bag when his grandpa came into his room. "Jaune, I know you heard all of that." He stated. Jaune stopped packing and turned to his grandfather._

" _How did you know?"_

" _I could hear those floorboards creaking around upstairs." Acier then walked over to Jaune's bed and sat on it. The man had slightly tan skin but other than that, he looked like Jaune if Jaune had white hair and a beard. The older man had on a yellow shirt which was covered by a black leather jacket and a pair of black cargo pants with the pockets bulging with items. He wore a pair of sandals and on his hip was his sword in its sheath._

" _So my parents really don't want me to go, huh?" Jaune asked with a depressed tone._

" _Your parents are just scared. It's the right of any parent to be worried about their kid, especially if their kid is going off to learn how to kill Grimm."_

" _But what about my transcripts? The minute they see how I fight, they'll-" Jaune was interrupted by Acier's hand being held in his face._

" _Don't worry about it kid, everything has been taken care of. I know the headmaster of the school. We're pretty good friends and I managed to convince him to let you in with a fake transcript." Acier said with a wide grin on his face._

" _And I don't even have a weapon, how am I going to fight Grimm?" Jaune asked as he began looking at the floor._

" _And that is why I'm up here right now," Acier replied. Jaune looked up at the man with a questioning look on his face._

" _Wait, you have a weapon for me?" Jaune asked in disbelief. Acier nodded._

" _Yep," Acier then pulled his sword's scabbard and blade from off his belt and handed it to Jaune. "This here is my trusty blade Crocea Mors. It has been with me since I first began my life as a warrior and I'm handing it over to you. It's seen many battles and I never wanted it to sit and collect dust, so it's your now." Acier finished with a smile as he patted Jaune's shoulder._

" _I can't accept this. It's your blade and I-"_

" _It's yours now. You have shown to be a capable young man filled with potential and that is why I'm leaving this sword to you. Make me proud kid." With that, Acier got up from the bed and walked out of the room leaving Jaune alone to ponder all that was happening._

 _ **[The next day]**_

 _Jaune stood before his parents as he was about to leave his home. Jaune's father looked like an older version of Jaune except for the scarring on the left side of his face and the robotic left hand. He wore a white shirt and brown pants. Jaune's mother had long brown hair that went down to her waist while her blue eyes were filled with tears. She wore a brown long sleeved dress and was holding her husband's arm._

 _Acier stood outside the house wearing a pair of sunglasses and a big grin. "Now Jaune, we just want to let you know that regardless of what we feel, we support your decision." Jaune's father said with as much pride as he could muster. His mother broke into tears as she gave Jaune a suffocation hug._

" _Your room is still open to you if you fail at Beacon!" Jaune's mother stated hysterically. Jaune felt slightly saddened that his parents thought he would fail so easily, but he took it with stride and walked to the doorway of the house. 'Here it goes.' Jaune thought to himself. His foot crossed over the threshold of the house to leave behind his family._

 _Jaune walked up to his Acier with a nervous smile. "I'm ready to go." Acier nodded and the two set off for the airship that was leaving for Beacon._

 _ **[Cut]**_

 _Both Jaune and Acier stood before the airship to Beacon. Jaune looked at his grandfather who stared at the airship. "Gramps, I'm feeling slightly nervous. Maybe I should go back home…"_

" _Kid, everyone gets scared at some point in their lives," Acier turned and looked into Jaune's eyes, "It's up to you to conquer that fear and become stronger for it." Acier patted Jaune on the back encouragingly._

" _But what about the other students? They'll see through my abilities easily enough…" Jaune trailed off in thought. Acier turned his body to Jaune and grinned._

" _Kid, there is one ability that all Arc's have that is much stronger than anyone else's."_

" _What's that?" Acier grinned._

" _The ability of bullshitting. So go out there, and kick some ass. Come back when you are done and we'll have a drink together." Jaune felt some confidence enter into himself from this and he began walking away from his grandfather._

 _As he stepped onto the ramp of the ship, he turned back to give his grandfather a wave which he received in kind as well as a massive grin. Jaune stayed where he was as the ramp pulled itself up and left him in the dark hull of the ship. Jaune walked away and up to the observation deck of the ship._

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha were pulled out of their thoughts when they saw the great black form of a Nevermore fly above them. "Well laddie, we're probably gonna have to fight that." Crocea stated with a tone of excitement.

"Crocea, this battle would be a slaughter for me. I only have short ranged weapons." Jaune said as he continued looking at the sky.

"Jaune, we should move faster to find our objective. I don't wish to fight that creature if I don't have to." Pyrrha said as she scanned the sky for any more Nevermore's.

"Yeah, listen to my partner, waste-of-skin!" Miló shouted out which made Jaune jump slightly. Pyrrha noticed this reaction with a look of worry.

"Jaune, are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I don't think your weapon likes me very much." Jaune replied as he walked forward. Pyrrha looked at her weapon with the revelation that her weapon was a thinking being in her mind.

"Pyrrha, you coming?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha looked up from her weapon and ran up to Jaune. Both continued walking through the woods until they reached a grassy clearing where they both saw the giant black crow form of the Nevermore flying around the area. Jaune also managed to notice that there were two specks hanging off of it, one was red while the other was white.

"Jaune, it's those two lasses from before!" Crocea announced, "And now the red one is falling…Oh shit." When Jaune heard this he sheathed Crocea and ran furiously towards Ruby.

"Not gonna make it." Crocea stated.

"Gonna make it!" Jaune shouted with his goal focused in his mind.

"You're not gonna make it." Crocea repeated which got on Jaune's nerves. This in turn made Jaune run faster as he got closer. Jaune gave one final push in speed and jumped in the air.

"I'm making it!" Jaune shouted as he pushed both himself and Ruby into a tree which knocked the breath out of him as he landed on the branch of the tree. He managed to push himself into a sitting position and lean against the tree for support. Below him Ruby was in a daze while a few feet away were two girls. First was the blonde girl named Yang who Jaune remembered was Ruby's sister. Next to her was a black haired girl who Jaune had no idea who she was.

Both girls were standing next to a ruin which held a bunch of large chess pieces. Jaune felt slightly happy that he was next to his objective at least. He looked below himself to see Ruby still dazed.

"And that is the wonders of reverse psychology, lad." Crocea said with a happy tone. Jaune ignored Corcea and looked down at Ruby who was recovering below him.

"Ohh…What was that?" Ruby asked as she shook her head to remove the dizziness that came from impacting face first into a tree.

Jaune gave out a loud cough to attract Ruby's attention. She turned and looked up to Jaune who waved. "Hey, Ruby… How's it hanging?" He asked as he stared at Ruby's weapon.

"Wow that was exciting. It was a little nerve wracking though." A sultry voice said which was being emitted from Ruby's scythe.

"That was a bad pun Jaune." Ruby replied much to Jaune's disappointment. Jaune stopped looking at the scythe and turned his attention to Pyrrha who now stood below him with a smirk on her face.

"I see that you're doing well for yourself." Pyrrha remarked with a slight chuckle. Jaune grinned cheekily at this. Everyone heard trees cracking from the trees from which a large Ursa emerged swiping at the air. A second later and some pink blast hit it in the back.

"YEAH, TAKE MY PINK BLASTS LARGE BEAR! NO ONE CAN STOP MAGNHILD AND LITTLE GIRL FROM KILLING YOU!" A loud voice shouted out. The Ursa hit the ground and from it's back, a orange haired girl was deposited to the ground.

"Yee-haw!" She exclaimed as she pulled herself up from the ground and turned to look at the quite dead Ursa. A look of sadness appeared on her face. "Aww, it's broken."

"Is this girl crazy?" Jaune asked himself.

"Probably. I remember this one time when your grandfather met this girl at a bar and-" Crocea was stopped from finishing his sentence as Jaune smacked the sheath of his sword. "What?" Crocea asked. Jaune pointed at the orange haired girl who was now running at the ruins where upon she picked up a chess piece.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She exclaimed while jumping around with the chess piece.

"YES LITTLE GIRL, WE ARE NOW QUEEN'S OF CASTLES!" Magnhild shouted in joy.

"Nora!" A voice exclaimed and the girl turned to look at a black haired boy who was walking towards her.

"Coming Ren!" Nora exclaimed as she skipped off to her partner. Jaune by now felt tired from all of this insanity. On the branch below him, Ruby jumped off and rolled on the ground before standing up and running to Yang.

"Yang!" She shouted as she wrapped Yang in a hug which was returned.

"Ruby!" Yang replied.

"Nora!" Nora said as she jumped between them. Jaune just sighed as he looked at the eccentric personalities below him. Ruby let go of Yang and pointed up above them.

"Umm…Yang?" Ruby said.

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss shouted out while hanging onto the talon of the Nevermore.

"I said "jump"!" Ruby replied back. Weiss' gripped finally began slipping until she was forced to let go and began her descent to the hard ground.

"You should probably try to catch her, lad." Jaune nodded before he stood up and jumped forward from the tree and caught her in both of his arms. He felt slightly happy as he caught Weiss, the girl who he had a crush on.

"Just…dropping in." Jaune said in as suave a voice as he could muster. Weiss was absolutely speechless but she also had a look of shock as she looked beneath both of them. Jaune didn't understand this at first until he looked down to see that they were still ten feet in the air. "Oh, God."

"You really should've thought this plan through, laddie." Jaune hit the ground on his stomach first which knocked the air out of him. He then felt Weiss land on his back which crushed him into the ground.

"My hero." Weiss said mockingly.

"My back." Jaune stated in pain.

"What a rapscallion. You sir are quite a failure at even helping my mistress." The sword that Weiss carried said in an arrogant tone.

"Oh quiet, brat. That's my partner you're talking to." Crocea said defensively.

"An old relic like you shouldn't be out here in the battlefield. You should be at a museum collecting dust." The rapier stated.

"Don't call me old ya damn brat!" Weiss got off of Jaune and walked over to her rapier and dusted it off.

"Oh Myrtenaster, you have a scratch." Weiss said as she inspected her blade.

"Thank you for caring for me my Mistress. Are you well? the useless blonde appeared to have failed in his pitiful rescue attempt." Myrtenaster asked with concern.

"Hey, I tried to help her!" Jaune shouted out. Weiss looked at Jaune with disdain.

"Who are you possibly talking to?" Weiss asked as she sheathed her rapier.

"Your weapon wasn't saying very nice things to me." Jaune responded with his face still planted on the floor. He eventually felt someone grab his arm and lift him off the ground. When he looked at his help he saw that Pyrrha was helping him up while looking at him with concern.

"Are you alright Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she checked him over.

"Yeah, thanks for the help." Jaune replied as he looked at the white clad girl in front of him.

"What could you possibly be talking about? Weapons don't speak. Did you hit your head too hard on the ground or something?" Weiss asked sarcastically.

"No, it's just my Semblance to be able to talk to weapons." Jaune replied.

"Are you sure that you're not crazy. Because I think that you are. No one can talk to weapons. They don't think and they don't feel. Weapons are just tools to be used, nothing more." Weiss said condescendingly.

"Jaune is not crazy. He actually can talk to weapons." Pyrrha said in a serious tone to Weiss. Weiss' eyes widened slightly.

"Pyrrha, you can't be buying what this idiot is saying. He's…Him while you are a champion. He obviously is lying to you."

"This little bitch is starting to get on my nerves. Jaune, if it comes down to it then could you please chop the little missy down to size?" Crocea asked. Jaune looked down at his weapon in shock at what he was saying.

"I'm not going to kill Weiss." Jaune whispered.

"Don't talk about my Mistress like that you relic!" Myrtenaster shouted out. Jaune looked at Myrtenaster as he said this.

"Then help the lad convince the little missy to believe him."

"Fine." Myrtenaster replied before focusing his attention on Jaune. "Blonde boy, my Mistress got her scar on her face from a spar with a training robot." Jaune looked up to Weiss' scar.

'So that's how she got it.' Jaune thought to himself. "Weiss, you got your scar from a training robot." Jaune said calmly. Weiss looked at Jaune in shock.

"How did you know that?" She asked.

"The rapier told me. I told you earlier that I could talk to weapons, so please believe me." Jaune said as he and Pyrrha walked over to the ruins and took one of the chess pieces. Jaune grabbed a second piece and tossed it to her which Pyrrha caught. Ruby ran up to Jaune as he turned around with a look in her eye.

"Can you actually talk to weapons?" Ruby asked. Jaune nervously nodded. Ruby squeaked in happiness before talking her scythe out and holding it before her. "Can you tell me what Crescent Rose is saying?" She asked giddily.

"Ahh…I didn't think that I would be put on the spot. It really makes me nervous…" Crescent Rose stuttered out.

"Oh go on and tell your partner how ya feel. Do ya know how rare it is to be able to have an opportunity to talk to your partner?" Crocea asked.

"W-well when you put it that way…Tell Ruby that I am quite happy to have her as my partner." Jaune smiled at this.

"She said that she is happy to have you as a partner." Jaune received a hug in response as Ruby jumped up and down.

"This is the coolest day ever! I wished I had that Semblance." Ruby said with some jealousy. Jaune shrugged. All of them turned to look at the sky when they heard the Nevermore cry out once again.

Jaune unsheathed Crocea and held his shield while Pyrrha did the same. The other teens gathered up near the three and all of them looked at the circling Grimm above themselves.

"Guys, I have an idea." Jaune stated. Everyone looked at Jaune.

"Ruby, Nora, and Pyrrha." Jaune said while pointing to all three. "I want you guys to act as long range support and take shots at the Nevermore." The three teens nodded and transformed their weapons into their gun forms.

"LET'S KILL BIG BURD!"

"This better not get us killed, waste-of-skin."

"This is exciting!" The three teens took position around the ruins and took shots off at the bird. Jaune turned to look at Weiss.

"Weiss, I want you to act as support for the shooters. Your job is to use your glyphs to speed the others up to the Grimm when we bring it down." Weiss nodded and ran to take cover next to Ruby. Jaune turned to look at Ren, Yang, and the black haired girl.

"Ren, Yang, and whoever you are-"

"It's Blake…" The black haired girl stated.

"Blake," Jaune confirmed, "I need you three to be the initial close ranged fighters for when the Grimm lands." Jaune finished.

"What about you?" Yang asked as she punched her fist into her hand. Jaune smiled at Yang.

"I'm going to be the first to attack the Grimm when it lands. I don't have any ranged abilities so I'm only really useful by being up close and personal." Jaune replied with as much courage as he could muster. Internally he was freaking out.

"Calm down, laddie. I'm gonna be with you the entire way. Now let's go kick some ass and eat that damn big bird!" Crocea said which bolstered Jaune's confidence. The three in front of him nodded and took cover while Jaune ran out of the ruins where upon the he heard the Nevermore cry out in pain as one of the shots managed to hit it in the wing.

The Nevermore crashed into the ground in front of him and began to pull itself off the ground in obvious pain. Jaune slashed his blade at the Grimm's side which made it devote it's attention to Jaune.

The Grimm flapped it's wing at Jaune which launched him into the air. As he flipped in the air, he saw that Yang, Blake, and Ren were already running at the Nevermore in order to take it down. Jaune flipped once more in the air before he was caught by Pyrrha who had jumped into the air.

Both landed on the ground together with Pyrrha sitting on the ground and Jaune with his head in her lap, much to Pyrrha's embarrassment and slight excitement. Nora and Ruby rushed past both of them while beneath themselves Weiss' glyphs appeared which gave them speed. Weiss ran past both on her glyphs.

"Well that was certainly convenient. Are you sure that luck isn't your Semblance because I think it might be." Crocea said in happiness.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha in the eyes and grinned. "I think that the plan is going well." Jaune stated. Pyrrha nodded in response and looked at everyone as they worked together to slice the Nevermore apart. Pyrrha propped Jaune's head up so that he could easily see the others taking down the Grimm.

The only annoying part of all of this was the fact that the bullets and hits on the Grimm only did so much as the Nevermore continued to fight back. Jaune pulled himself up and he and Pyrrha ran towards the others in order to press on with the attack.

Jaune noticed Ruby pull Weiss, Yang, and Blake to the trees while he, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren kept fighting.

"Guys! Get out of the way!" Ruby screamed. The four teens heeded Ruby's advice and ran from the Nevermore just as Ruby slammed into it with glyphs trailing under her feet and rose petals flying behind her back. Ruby jumped and caught the Nevermore in the neck with the crook of her scythe before landing on the ground and dragging it behind her.

"I am EXCITED!" Crescent Rose exclaimed as both she and Ruby continued dragging the Nevermore behind themselves.

Ruby gave one final tug on Crescent Rose which decapitated the massive Grimm. Ruby stood breathing heavily as the Grimm behind her dispersed into black dust.

"Wow, I didn't think that my plan was going to do that well." Jaune stated much to the humor of Pyrrha.

"Well laddie, ya did pretty well for your first rodeo. We just gotta train you up a little bit and we'll make you hero material in no time." Jaune just smiled at his partner.

"Yup." Above the teens, they saw a Bullhead that was landing in the area. Jaune shrunk his shield back into its sheath form and put Crocea into it before he buckled it to his belt. "Well Pyrrha, time to go back to the academy."

"Alright Jaune." Pyrrha replied before playfully hitting him in the shoulder.

"Ow." Jaune mumbled as he rubbed his shoulder. It still hurt from being hit by the Nevermore.

"You alright, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked in worry.

"Yeah, I just am a little sore from being hit by that Grimm." Jaune replied as they continued walking towards the Bullhead.

* * *

Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora stood with each other as the gray haired headmaster Ozpin called them up to the stage. "Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." All of them looked at each other as the audience clapped. Nora grabbed Ren in a hug during this.

"YES! WE ARE TEAM OF BURD KILLERS!" Magnhild shouted which was starting to cause an impending headache for Jaune.

"Led by…Jaune Arc!" Ozpin exclaimed to the surprise of Jaune.

"Way to go, laddie! Your parents are gonna be so proud!" Crocea said in pride.

"How the hell did the waste-of-skin become our team leader?!" Miló shouted much to Jaune's annoyance. Pyrrha decided to give Jaune a friendly bump to his shoulder but it instead caused Jaune to topple onto his butt while all of the audience began laughing at him much to his embarrassment.

"Cheer up laddie, you'll show 'em one day!" Jaune smiled at his partner's encouragement as he stood up and walked with his team off the stage.

This was going to be the beginning of a very strange life for Jaune but at least he had some new friends from all of this. One day, he would definitely become a hero like the stories he was always told.

 **And here begins our tale of heroes, monsters…And talking weapons. I hope you guys enjoy this. Stay frosty my friends.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Two: Hell By Night, Classes By Day**

* * *

Jaune found himself in a massive auditorium where people were clapping for him. He could see his parents who looked so happy for him. Ozpin walked over to Jaune and stood in front of Jaune.

"You receive this medal today due to your valor in the field and saving Beacon as well as all of Vale from being attacked by the Grimm. For this you receive the Medal of Courage which has only been given out once before," Ozpin then pinned the medal onto his chest, "please do us all proud with your actions." Ozpin then bowed before Jaune and walked off the stage leaving Jaune standing before the crowd.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune noticed three figures walk up onto the stage. This first was Pyrrha who was followed by Ruby who was also followed by Weiss. "Jaune, you have done so much for Vale. We are so happy for you." Pyrrha began.

Ruby walked up to Jaune and put her arms around his neck. "Because of all you have done we wanted to show you our appreciation." Ruby then dragged Jaune's face to hers and gave him a kiss with what Jaune could feel was a large amount of tongue. This was certainly turning out to be the best day ever. After a minute of Ruby kissing him she let go and Weiss walked up to him.

"Yes Jaune, we really want to show you our appreciation." Weiss removed her jacket and let it slide to the floor. Ruby and Pyrrha followed suit and in a very tantalizingly slow fashion, the three girls removed their clothes which left them in their underwear.

"Oh my God, what did I do to earn this?" Jaune asked as he let the three girls pleasure him in ways he could only dream of. Ruby stood up from the floor clad in only her black bra and panties and looked Jaune in the eye.

"Jaune, you need to get up." She said serenely. This confused Jaune, what did she mean that he needed to get up? He was standing in an auditorium. Ruby leaned in closer to Jaune which allowed him to feel her breath on his face.

"Laddie, you need to get up." Ruby said once again.

"Ruby-" Jaune was interrupted as Ruby slapped in the face.

"Laddie! Wake the fuck up!" Ruby said with Crocea Mors's voice. Wait! This is a dream, No!

* * *

Jaune rolled out of his bed and onto the floor. His left arm was full of pain as it hit the floor. Jaune rubbed his eyes with his right hand and looked at the window to see that it was still dark. Why was he being awakened at this God forsaken hour? Jaune lifted himself off the ground and sat on his bed.

"Wakey wakey, laddie. It's time to begin the 'Crocea Mors Training Seminar'!" Crocea said with excitement in his voice. Jaune groaned before leaning back on his bed.

"Why?" Jaune asked. Crocea began to laugh. Jaune was now wondering why he didn't just put Crocea with the other weapons into the rocket locker.

"You need it, lad. I mean, you barely managed to survive the encounter with Tweety and well, you are gonna need a lot of work if you want to do well in this place." Crocea explained before taking a deep breath. "Now get your ass of that onesie and put some clothes on. Oh and forego the armor. You won't need it." Jaune pushed himself out of his bed and looked at his other teammates who were still sleeping peacefully in bed.

He looked at Pyrrha and blushed as he remembered the dream. Jaune decided to look away from his sleeping partner to ignore the thoughts roaming about through his head.

He then walked to his unpacked suitcase and pulled out a shirt and pants which he put on after he took off his onesie. He put his shoes on and walked over to where Crocea was being leaned against the corner of the room. He strapped his partner to his hip and finally walked out the door while being sure to close the door quietly behind him.

Jaune stood in the dark hallway and yawned. This truly was going to be a terrible morning for him. "Alright laddie, start running out to the courtyard." Crocea ordered. Jaune shrugged and began walking out of the dorms. "I said run, not walk." Jaune groaned in annoyance and began to jog. "I don't need to repeat myself do I, laddie?" Jaune complied and began a full on sprint.

Jaune felt the wind tug at his hair as he ran. He could feel his lungs begin to burn as they tried to intake more air while his heart beat faster. His leg muscles were starting to hurt but he ignored it and kept running. He wondered what Crocea's purpose of this was for but he kept that thought buried.

He made it out of the dorms eventually and made it to the courtyard of Beacon where he saw a statue of a man with his sword held aloft while a young girl stood behind him. Both stood atop a small cliff of rock while a Beowolf stood hunched beneath it.

"We're here lad. Now pull me out." Crocea ordered. Jaune complied and pulled Crocea from his sheath and held him up. "See that statue over there?" Jaune nodded while wondering how the statue related. "Look at the sword the man his holding." Jaune followed what Crocea asked and now that he realized it, the sword on the statue looked exactly like Cocea.

"Why does that sword look like you?" Jaune asked.

"Heh, it was a long time ago when your grandfather first fought during the war. I was with your grandfather when he decided to stand before a hoard of Grimm intent on killing both armies that were fighting here. Your grandfather was the first to notice this during all the fighting and he decided to charge against the Grimm as the armies fought on. Your grandfather took many injuries while defending everyone but he managed to push them back. By the time he collapsed, both armies realized what he did and he was treated as a hero for what he…sacrificed." Crocea finished sadly.

"What did he sacrifice?" Jaune asked.

"See the young lass standing next to him?" Jaune nodded, "That was his student who he took a shine to during the war. She died during the Grimm attack. I liked her...she was always happy even during the bleakest of days."

"What was her name?" Jaune asked.

"Joan." Crocea paused for a bit as he thought about the young woman with so many dreams cut short. Jaune just thought about all the hardships his grandfather must have went through during this. "Anyway laddie, it's something of the past that while never being forgotten, is not something to dwell on." This knocked Jaune out of his depressing thoughts. "Now let's keep running laddie! I want to see us make it all the way around Beacon before the sun comes up!" Jaune grinned.

"That'll be easy." Jaune said cockily.

"You're gonna do three laps." Crocea said with barely hidden mirth. Jaune's smirk dropped when he heard this.

"I hate you right now."

"Ya know ya love me, laddie. Now get your ass runnin'!" Jaune sighed before running out of the courtyard and going in a clockwise direction. Unbeknownst to Jaune, Ozpin watched with a smirk from his tower as Acier's grandkid trained. Ozpin took a sip from his mug as he scratched his messy gray hair. Ozpin walked over to his desk and set his mug down onto his desk.

"Acier my friend, I wonder what your descendent will do to surprise me?" Ozpin remarked in thought. Ozpin scratched his bare chest and realized something, where the hell did his shirt go?

* * *

Jaune managed to drag himself through the last lap just as the sun started to peak over the horizon much to the horror of Jaune. Now he would never be able to get some well deserved rest. He stopped at the statue and tried to suck air in his lungs while sweat rolled down his face. If only he didn't have to deal with, "Alright laddie, that was quite a good run! Now you need to get back to your dorm quickly because you have classes today!" Jaune groaned as he realized this. He had to go to class after all of this? Today was going to suck.

Jaune half ran, half dragged himself through the threshold of his dorm room, took off Crocea from his waist, and collapsed on his bed. "Come on boy! You need to get in a shower and clean yourself off."

"Give me…couple…minutes." Jaune said slowly as his eyes closed themselves to the sweet embrace of sleep. A minute later and the alarm in his team's room began ringing. Jaune popped open his bloodshot eyes and pitifully moaned as his teammates got out of their beds.

"Why?" Jaune asked in a futile manner.

"Jaune, it's time to get up." Pyrrha told him.

"No, let me sleep…"

"You have to get up, we have classes." Pyrrha replied before shaking him. Jaune finally complied and got out of his bed. He then went to the team bathroom while ignoring Ren who was being bothered by Nora.

Jaune shut the door behind him and took off all his clothes. Jaune then turned the shower on and jumped in.

Outside the bathroom, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha were waiting for Jaune to hurry up in the bathroom so that they could go in. "So did any of you notice how off Jaune is today?" Pyrrha asked as she sat on her bed.

"Yeah, he seemed tired." Ren replied. Next to him, Nora just babbled about what they would do today. Ren had learned to deal with Nora's incessant chatter over the years and by now; it was what kept him awake in the mornings. His own personal alarm clock.

All three teammates jumped when they heard Jaune scream girlishly inside the bathroom. "Guess Jaune forgot about the hot water. Sucks to be him." Nora said with some humor in her voice.

"Wow the lad is a real airhead in the morning. Guess he just needs to get used to the training. Oh well, could be worse." Crocea said to himself. A few minutes later and a soaking Jaune in only a towel to cover his modesty emerges.

"That…was…horrible." Jaune said while walking over to his suitcase where his school uniform lay. The others shrugged and Pyrrha walked into the bathroom next. Jaune on the other hand turned away from the others and let his towel drop. He then quickly put his clothes on.

"Nice ass!" Nora said with mirth much to Jaune's embarrassment. Crocea laughed which added to the further blush on Jaune's face.

"Well at least the lasses are checking ya out. Ya should get naked more often if that is the reaction you get from one lass." Jaune finished putting his clothes on while ignoring Crocea's statement. "Hey, I'm just trying to help."

"Maybe I should put you in the rocket launcher after school today." Jaune threatened.

"You wouldn't…" Crocea replied in horror. Jaune began grinning.

"Oh wouldn't I? You should really be afraid of a sleep deprived guy like me," Jaune's grin turned into a full blown smile at this point, "because you never know when someone like me will put you away into a locker…" Jaune trailed off.

"Fine." Crocea said somberly, "I will stop making fun of your love escapades." Jaune nodded at his partner before he strapped him to his waist. Jaune turned to see his Ren and Nora staring at him with wide eyes.

"Something wrong?" Jaune asked. Ren and Nora shook their heads. Pyrrha popped out of the bathroom while wearing her school uniform.

"Okay, you two are up!" Pyrrha cheerfully announced. Ren and Nora looked at each other before getting up and entering the bathroom together without even minding that they were sharing a bathroom together. Jaune was wondered if those two were a couple as they shut the door behind them.

"So Pyrrha, do you think those two are together?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha smiled.

"Maybe." She replied. She also thought about what being with Jaune would be like. She just hoped that he would ask her out.

As Pyrrha was in her fantasies, Jaune walked over to Pyrrha and waved his hand in front of her face. "Pyrrha," No response, "Pyrrha," He snapped his fingers repeatedly. Pyrrha started blinking and looked at Jaune in the eyes.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about something." She stated.

"Yeah, probably about some blonde. Who knows?" Crocea stated.

"Yeah, whatever Crocea. I just hope you aren't going to continue with your romantic theories. That would be really annoying." Jaune said as he walked over to his bed and laid down on it. When Pyrrha heard this she began blushing.

"It's not romantic theories laddie. It's shipping. There is a difference y'know." Crocea responded with an offended tone.

"How does transporting things on ships have to do with romantic theories?" Jaune asked. Crocea sighed.

"Ya have quite a lot of things to learn but that's why I'm here. Soon you will know the glories of the ship, and then my young apprentice, you will rise!" Crocea began to cackle with glee.

"Whatever." Jaune turned to look at Pyrrha. "So how long do you think that those two will take in there?" Jaune asked as he pointed at the bathroom door.

"I don't know. I'm still wondering why those two went into the bathroom together." Pyrrha responded. As she said this both Ren and Nora emerged from the bathroom with steam puddling out behind them.

"I want pancakes!" Nora looked at Ren, "Can you make pancakes for me after class?" Nora asked. Ren nodded.

Suddenly Team JNPR heard some people running outside their room and noticed that Team RWBY was running past. "Wait, what time is it?" Jaune asked.

"Time for you to get a watch." Crocea and Nora replied. Jaune smacked his face.

"We need to get to class!" Pyrrha shouted. All of the team then ran out of their dorm and down the hallway. They made it to the courtyard and past Ozpin his busty blonde co-worker Glynda Goodwitch.

"What in the Sam hell are you maggots doing running!?" A strict voice shouted from behind Jaune. Jaune just ignored it and kept running with his teammates to his classroom. When they made it to their class, they were greeted to the form of a portly man with gray combed hair and a massive mustache. Seriously, Jaune thought, that thing took up almost a third of his face. Where was his mouth under that thing?

The classroom on the other hand looked perfectly normal except for the fact that there was a cage in the middle of the room. The cage moved slightly from the whatever was inside banging itself against the bars.

"That truly is a man's man!" Crocea stated with pride as he looked upon the portly man. Above the man, a weapon that had the body of a blunderbass and the blades of an axe at the butt of it began laughing.

"Yes, yes that mustache is good chap. Who would you be mister sword?" The blunderbass asked.

"I'm Crocea Mors, the oldest weapon in this school!" Crocea stated with pride.

"Well then good chap, I am Blundast. It is quite the pleasure to meet a pleasurable fellow such as yourself. You wouldn't believe the ruckus that those young brats and their partners cause." Blundast said with relief.

"Well that is quite the story lad. The laddie holding me is my partner Jaune. He can hear you just so you know." Crocea said. Jaune smiled in response at this.

"Oh, that is quite interesting. Well if you wish to know young man, the man beneath me is my partner Peter Port. Quite an interesting character if I do say so myself. Just between us three, my partner will ramble on about old battles. All you need to know is how to take down Grimm in this class. If you wish, I can tell you all that you need during our classes together." Blundast said with a jovial tone. Jaune nodded to the weapon discreetly as he took his seat.

As Jaune did this, Professor Port began to ramble on about his old hunting experiences just like Blundast had said he would. "Well young man, I could tell you about what's in the cage of my friend here." Jaune nodded slightly.

"It's a Boarbatusk. You don't know how long it took to catch and throw in the cage." Blundast said with some hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Well laddie, I think that this will be quite an easy class for you, what with the teacher here being a bit of a narcissist. Now we just need to help prepare you for the actual combat classes." Crocea said with excitement.

"So who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Port asked the class. Immediately Weiss raised her hand.

"I do, sir!"

"What a teacher's pet…" Crocea mused.

"Well then, let's find out!" Professor Port said excitedly. The cage that Port stood next to began shaking furiously.

"Oh, this will be quite fun! I wonder if the young lady will get mauled like the last student who tried this. Either way, good show!" Blundast said which made Jaune's mouth drop open in shock. As he said this, Weiss exited the classroom. She came back a few minutes later with Myrtenaster and her white combat clothes.

"Oh Mistress, what an exciting day this will be. En guard vile beast!" Myrtenaster shouted out.

"Go, Weiss!" Yang shouted out from the peanut gallery as she raised her fist in the air. Blake on the other hand held a small flag with 'RWBY' on it. Jaune wondered where the hell that she got a flag with her team's name on it already.

"Fight well!" Blake said in a soft tone yet with enough enthusiasm to sound like she was interested. Ruby on the other hand instead, well…

"Yeah! Represent team RWBY!" She shouted. Weiss showed annoyance on her face as she held her rapier aloft. Weiss lowered her weapon slightly and turned to look at her team leader.

"Ruby!" She whined out, "I'm trying to focus!" Weiss said strictly. Ruby looked sheepish when told this and lowered her head slightly.

"Please tell me why you possibly like this girl again, lad?" Crocea asked completely dumbfounded. Professor Port ignored this interaction of team RWBY and instead looked giddy.

"Alright!" Port then walked over to where Blundast was placed and removed him from the wall. He then walked over to the cage and used the axe portion of the weapon to chop the lock off the cage. When he did so the cage burst open to reveal a pitch black boar with white tusks connected to a bony head plate. All over its body were white spikes.

The Boarbatusk then charged at the young woman. She held up Myrtenaster to deflect the attack and then she rolled to the side of the Boarbatusk that continued its charge for a few feet before turning around to glare with its red eyes at Weiss.

"That young lady needs to hit the beast under its belly. Otherwise the young blade over there will do nothing but annoy the beast." Blundast explained to Jaune.

"I wonder if the lass is gonna get another scar?" Crocea asked. Jaune sighed in exasperation at his partner. Why did he have to have the ability to talk to weapons again? He thought to himself.

"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port said with confidence.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby encouraged. The Boarbatusk began another charge at Weiss.

"Avast foul beast! You shant touch my mistress!" Myrtenaster cried out as Weiss aimed her weapon at the skull of the Boarbatusk. This did nothing to the Grimm and instead Myrtenaster became trapped in the Grimm's tusks. The beast then shook its head to remove the blade from Weiss. "You shant defeat me, creature of darkness!"

"The lass is screwed." Crocea remarked to Jaune.

"Why?" Jaune whispered.

"Basic physics lad. The beast has more leverage on the weapon that the young lass does. All it needs is one good yank and the blade will be out of her hand." Crocea explained much to Jaune's shocked face.

"How do you know about physics?" Jaune asked.

"Well there was this teammate your grandfather was partnered with who used a bow as their main weapon. That damn bow would never shut the hell up about physics and trajectories. I was basically force fed an education." As he said this, Myrtenaster was ripped from Weiss' grip.

"OH SHIT!" Myrtenaster screamed out which caused Jaune to slightly giggle at how the normally proper weapon was shouting obscenities.

"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" Port asked. Weiss looked up to see the Boarbatusk charge once more. She rolled out of the way and the boar charged past her and into a desk.

"Come for me Mistress! The floor is quite cold! I'm so lonely here!" Myrtenaster cried out in distress. Weiss ran to her sword and slid on the ground before grabbing the weapon. "Thank you Mistress!"

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" Ruby said trying to help but it fell upon deaf ears to her teammate who interrupted her.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss shouted out much to Jaune's shock at how his crush could be so cold. Ruby looked sad at her partner's rebuttle.

"Yeah, don't tell my Mistress anything! She is the perfect being and she does not require help!" Myrtenaster shouted out. Crocea and Jaune groaned in annoyance at the rapier.

"Hey cheerleader, shut up and let us enjoy the fight! I think I can feel my body rusting from your voice!" Crocea shouted.

"You do not understand the power of my Mistress! Cease your ramblings you senile old fool!" Crocea growled in anger. The Boarbatusk leap into the air and began rolling at Weiss like a black ball of death. Weiss in response activated her Semblance and created a glyph in front of the charging Grimm and one above and behind her. The Grimm ball smacked into the glyph face first and rolled onto its back. Weiss then flipped backwards onto her glyph and launched herself at the Grimm, stabbing it in the belly.

"Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Weiss stood up from the ground looking exhausted. Jaune looked at Ruby who had a massive frown on her face. Why did Weiss have to treat her teammate like that? "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and …stay VIGILENT! Class dismissed!" Port cried out enthusiastically.

"That lass really needs to learn how to be less of a teacher's pet and more of a team player." Corcea said to Jaune. He noticed how Weiss just walked away from her teammates and completely ignored them.

"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asked.

"Sometimes there are the students that come to this school with something to prove. They are usually broken of that behavior before they leave the school. Usually…" Blundast said with some sadness in his voice. Jaune continued staring at Weiss until she exited the classroom.

"There are other fish out there in the sea, lad. You should start fishing 'cause the lass over there probably ain't gonna be biting." Crocea chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Jaune asked.

"Your grandfather was just as terrible with his love life as you when he was your age." Jaune shrugged and stood up from his desk along with his team. All of them headed to leave for the cafeteria. Today was apparently the only day during the school year where they would only go to one class so Team JNPR decided to eat.

"So Jaune, does your sword eat anything as well? If it did, then that would be cool. What would it eat? Metal, heat, blodd?" Nora asked Jaune.

"I don't eat. I wish I could since it seems interesting." Crocea responded.

"He doesn't." Jaune said in an abridged format much to Nora's disappointment.

"So can you hear Magnhild speak as well? What does it say? Is it a guy or a girl? I really hope girl because it would be weird if it was a guy." Nora babbled.

"Yes I can, he says…lots of things." Jaune responded.

"Wait, Magnhild's a guy!" Nora said in shock. Jaune sighed and smacked his forehead. This was his teammate who he was leading? Who thought it would be funny to put the hyper girl on his team? At least Ren could balance her out. Speaking of Ren.

"Hey Ren, how long have you known Nora?" Jaune asked.

"A long time." Ren responded quickly. Jaune thought that this was weird but at least his partner Pyrrha was still quite normal.

Pyrrha on the other hand was thinking about how she could hook up with Jaune. If only the oblivious idiot could notice her. She just hoped that Jaune would forget about Weiss because that girl did not care at all about Jaune like she did.

"Hey laddie, just so you know, we are going to be doing some more training tonight. I just wanted you to know." Crocea said with some slight glee in his voice. Jaune felt like crying when he heard this.

"Why me?" He asked aloud.

 **And that is your chapter. Hoped you enjoyed. This would have been posted Wednesday but work managed to kick my ass all week. So as always, stay frosty my friends.**

 **Oh, one thing to note. Let the wars begin…heh heh heh.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Three: Playing with Ice**

* * *

Jaune would have felt happy to wake up this morning if it wasn't for one thing…

"Jaune, keep running you wimp! We still have two more laps to go!" Crocea shouted interrupting the silence of the early morning. Jaune was breathing heavily due to exerting himself so much. What was really torturous about this to Jaune was that Crocea had added four more laps around the school compared to his three from yesterday.

"Why…are…you…being…so…cruel?" Jaune said in between breaths. He felt like his lungs were going to be vomited from his throat what with the huge burning sensation that filled them.

"You just need to get used to running like this. Let me tell you that all those other lads and lasses at the school could do this easily. Because of that, we need to get you in shape like this otherwise, you will get your arse kicked and I'll be damned if that brat of a rapier is ever able to find a reason to mock me!" Crocea began to growl slightly which made Jaune run faster so that he wouldn't have to deal with Crocea being pissed.

Jaune managed with some difficulty to lift his head up from the ground to look at the sky. He saw that the sun hadn't crested over the trees but the dim light that outlined the trees meant that he probably had about a half an hour before he would need to get back into his home.

After another two laps, Jaune had slowed down to a slight jog that switched between an outright walk to the limping jog every few seconds.

Crocea noticed how his partner was starting to shut down and began deciding what to do. He could either let the lad kept running and be woefully unprepared for class, or he could let him have a break now and make him work harder tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. A few more seconds and Crocea made up his mind.

With a reluctant tone Crocea said, "Alright laddie, you can stop running," Jaune collapsed onto the ground and gave out a groan of happiness. "Uh, you alright laddie?" Jaune groaned in response, "I'll take that as a yes. Just so you know, you need to get back to your dorm in order to get ready for class."

"Uhhhh…" Jaune moaned as he pushed himself off the ground and began to lug himself back to his dorm with a single minded determination.

"Go go, you can do it, put a little power to it!" Crocea said in an effort to encourage Jaune. The sun began to slowly peek itself out from the trees but by then Jaune had made it inside the academy and was now walking to his room. Sweat dripped from his body as he did this but Jaune ignored it and pushed himself to his dorm where he pushed the door open and saw his still resting teammates.

Truly this is what he signed up for when he decided to come to this academy. A talking sword and the myriad of problems that followed from said talking sword.

* * *

It was class with Professor Port that really tired Jaune out. After Port began to derive back into his 'Story Teller Phase' Jaune clocked out and fell asleep drooling at his desk much to the amusement of his teammates. Port in regards to this, didn't even notice that Jaune was asleep and instead continued talking about how he had once fought twenty Beowolves with his bare fists.

"So Crocea, what is wrong with the young man? He wasn't this tired yesterday." Blundast asked from his position on the mantle above Port's desk.

"Well the laddie is in need of serious training and because of that, I've been making him do some laps around the school before we get to actual sword training."

"How is that possible my friend? He would have had to do the entrance exam which takes some skill to do."

"Yeah 'bout that…he never did the exams." Crocea said with a slightly embarrassed tone.

"How?! That is impossible! I've never seen a student get in that either didn't do the exams or wasn't chosen to come by Ozpin." Blundast said incredulously.

"It is because he had his transcripts forged. While usually I wouldn't try to work with someone that would resort to doing something like that, I am helping the lad because if his overprotective parents hadn't prevented him from going to a combat school in the first place, he could have gotten into this place quite easily."

"What do you mean by that?" Blundast asked with confusion.

"The lad I have noticed is while untrained, skilled. I just want to help him reach his full potential because I want to see him accomplish his dreams." Crocea finished with some pride in his voice.

"I can accept your partner's goals, my friend. But I think that there is something that you are not telling me. Be that as it may, it's not my right to pry. You may tell me…one day, friend." With that, Blundast fell silent and thought.

Crocea looked at his sleeping partner and thought on what the blunderbuss had told him. His goals were his own but his partner's were more important, he was just the tool for the young boy in the end.

"Yes, and that class is how I then managed to save the mayor of that town. If there are no questions, I think that the class is over. I hope you all learned much from today and I'll see you again tomorrow. You are dismissed and I hope you remain VIGILENT!" When Port said this, the students began to stand up from there seats. The only person still in their seat was Jaune. Pyrrha tried to shake Jaune awake but he continued snoring. Pyrrha looked at Nora and Ren before shrugging her shoulders.

"Can you wake him, Nora?" Pyrrha asked. A massive grin appeared on Nora's face and she walked right next to Jaune. She grabbed a heavy book that was next to Jaune and lifted t from the table and above her head. Ren and Pyrrha put their hands on their ears in expectance for what was about to happen.

"Here comes the BOOM!" Nora shouted as she slammed the book on the table right next to Jaune's head. Jaune jumped up from the table with his eyes wide and fearful.

"I'm awake!" Jaune shouted. Pyrrha covered her hand over her mouth to hide the laughter that was threatening to build up from inside her. Ren looked stoic as usual while Nora had a wide shit eating grin.

"You are now, laddie. Now get a move on, we need to get to our next class." Crocea said with some humor in his voice. Jaune stretched his arms widely before turning to look at his teammates.

"So, what are we going?" Jaune yawned as he said this.

"We are going to Professor Oobleck's class. Everyone has already left." Pyrrha responded as she pointed to the empty seats of the classroom.

"So are you kids still here to listen to my story about how I once stopped a deathstalker with just a lighter?" Port asked from the center of the classroom. Team JNPR turned to look at the stout professor and shook their heads in response much to the disappointment of Port.

"Well, if you ever want to come listen to some of my tales, then come back here and I'll tell you of my great adventures!" When Port looked to see the students he noticed all of them had run off. Port turned to look at his blunderbass. "Well at least you'll never leave me."

"I wish…" Blundast replied.

* * *

Team JNPR managed to arrive right on time into the class as other students were still trying to get into their seats. The teacher of the class known as Oobleck was a skinny man with green messy hair and large round glasses. He wore a messy white dress shirt and a yellow tie. His pants were a deep green while his shoes were a dark brown. In his hand he held a green thermos in his hands which he was taking a sip from.

"Coffee, hot, coffee, hot, coffee coffee COFFEE!" Jaune could hear a deep voice say in a mantra which was coming from the thermos.

"Ugh, Professor Oobleck," Jaune said. Oobleck turned his attention to Jaune.

"Yes, Mister Arc?" Oobleck said quickly.

"Why are you using your weapon to drink your coffee? Aren't you worried that it'll explode in your face?" Jaune asked as he eyes the weapon up and down.

"That is an astute observation. I wonder, is it because of your Semblance?" Oobleck said with knowing smile much to the shock of Jaune.

"How did you-"

"You realize that there are cameras scattered throughout the forest, Mister Arc. We teachers were told by Ozpin today." Oobleck replied. Jaune's team walked away from the two as they chatted in order to find seats. "But it is quite interesting to know that my weapon is able to form coherent thoughts of it's own. Could you please enlighten me as to what my weapon is saying?" Oobleck said while holding out his thermos to Jaune's face.

"Coffee coffee, Oobleck should put mocha coffee in me, coffee, COFFEE!" The thermos stated.

"Umm, it says that you should put mocha coffee inside it. And it keeps saying coffee." Jaune responded.

"That is wonderful! Actual sentient weapons, it's a scientific study of a lifetime! We must talk about this discovery later, Mister Arc!" Jaune nodded nervously before he walked to a seat that was available next to Pyrrha. With that, Oobleck began his lecture on the creation of the four kingdoms of Remnant.

Jaune tried his best to stay awake in this class as he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to pull of his previous stunt of sleeping in Port's class.

"So laddie, you learning?" Crocea asked.

"Kinda, I think I've learned that I should never wake up so early in the morning in order to do your murderous attempts at exercise." Jaune whispered.

"Ya know, sarcasm won't get you far with me, lad."

"Alright." Jaune yawned a bit and put his hand under his chin to keep his head aloft. "At least I only have one more class left after this. Then sleep." Jaune stated.

"Keep telling yourself that, lad." Crocea responded ominously.

"So class, can you please tell me what the Great War between the kingdoms was about?" Oobleck asked. Jaune could instantly feel the anger rising from Crocea at this. Weiss raised her hand quickly. "Miss Schnee, what would the answer be?"

"It was a battle over many things but one of the main reasons was for individualism." Weiss responded.

"Well done Miss Schnee!" Weiss felt elated from receiving the compliment. Oobleck focused his attention to the class and took a sip from his mug. "Yes, the Great War was one that would for many years, tear families apart due to the conflicting beliefs of both sides."

"Hmmph, beliefs my ass. That war was fought over control of the populous by a bunch of pompous shits." Crocea stated angrily, "So many died because a few people in power wanted more of it. And to get it, they sacrificed life after life to cull those who were against the restrictions being set into place." Jaune looked at his partner attached to his hip.

"What restrictions?" Jaune asked.

"First they wished to restrict who could become leaders from the people, and then it was freedom of movement. Afterwards they tried to restrict more of what made you people in order to turn them into walking weapons. When finally tipped the people of Remnant against them was when they tried to take away your creativity and freedom. After that, people revolted and many died."

"Who were the people in power? I never heard of them?" Jaune asked. Crocea gave out a meek laugh.

"Those people's names were stricken from the annals of history so that their identities would never be remembered, only their deeds. And what horrid deeds they were. Maybe one day I'll tell you their names, but today I wish not to remember such filth. Do not ask me again lad." Crocea then became unusually silent unlike his usual bombastic self. This worried Jaune, what kind of war would make someone happy like Crocea sound like such a jaded old man. What did this mean about his grandfather? He would have to ask his grandfather about it one day.

"And that is the end of class. I hope that you all learned something of importance from this lesson today because the only way to prevent mistakes is to look upon the past. Now I hope you all do your reading, you are dismissed." The students stood up from their seats and walked out of the classroom.

As Jaune walked out from the classroom, he thought on all that he learned today. Would Crocea ever tell him all that he knew about the Great War? Jaune walked with his teammates to their next class and ended up in an auditorium. Lining the auditorium's walls were their rocket lockers. They certainly were not there early that was for sure. All the students went to the lockers and grabbed their combat gear and went to the bathrooms located in the auditorium. When they came out dressed for battle, they walked over the stage at the end of the auditorium.

Standing on the stage of it was a busty blond woman in a white dress shirt with a black skirt, stockings, and heels while on her back was a short cape with purple lining. To finish the look, her green eyes were covered by a pair of glasses. All in all, she gave off an intimidating librarian look.

In her left hand, she held a riding crop while her right held a Scroll. Jaune looked at the crop and gulped. He hoped that this weapon wouldn't be too eccentric.

"Hello class," The woman also known as Professor Goodwitch said coolly, "today is the first day of combat training. You will be here in order to train your bodies and minds to eventually one day become fully realized Hunters and Huntresses."

"Yes you shit maggots, all of you rusted pieces of shit are going to be learning how to take a hit without flinching like a complete bitch. And yes, while you may say that your partners are unable to hear what you say, then look at the blonde little bitch in the corner there," Jaune could feel the weapons turn their attention on him which made his sweat slightly, "he can hear perfectly what his partner is saying. Isn't that right you blonde little shit?!"

Jaune in slight fear of the riding crop nodded. "Now you little shit, from now on I want to see you drop on your fucking stomach and give me fifty! If you do not, then I will come over there and shove myself up your ass so far that you'll be shitting out of your mouth! Now do it!" Jaune dropped to the ground and began to do pushups. Around him, his classmates looked in disbelief and slight humor at how the scared blonde just kept on pushing himself up and down the ground.

"Mister Arc, what are you doing?" Goodwitch asked.

"Pushups, I like to get pumped up in the morning." Jaune replied quickly as he reached his fifteenth pushup.

"So, Crop, what's your name?" Crocea asked.

"My name that I have chosen for myself is Sergeant Slaughter! My partner on the other hand sometimes refers to me as Major Payne! Either way, I will be yours and everyone else's for the next four years!" Crocea and Jaune both found it quite annoying at how the riding crop only shouted when it talked. It was personally giving Jaune quite the major headache.

After a few more minutes, Jaune finished his fiftieth pushup and even though he was breathing heavily, he pushed himself off the ground and looked at Professor Goodwitch whose eyes were slightly narrowed at Jaune. "Mister Arc, if you are finished then I would like you up on this stage along with Miss Schnee." Jaune felt embarrassed at being forced up the stage before all the other students. When Jaune got up on the stage, he looked over at Weiss who was smirking due to expecting an easy victory.

Goodwitch got off the stage and turned to look at the two opponents. "Alright students, the rules for this exercise is to fight one another until your aura turns red on your Scroll or if you are knocked off the stage. When this happens, then you have lost." Goodwitch tapped on her scroll and the lights outside the stage became pitch black leaving only the stage illuminated.

"You better do well you blonde shit!" Sergeant Slaughter shouted which destroyed any remaining confidence that Jaune had left.

Jaune stood before Weiss and pulled out his sword while his sheath elongated into a shield. "Alright lad, just keep calm and hold your shield up." Jaune followed his partner's advice and held his shield before Weiss.

Weiss yawned and pulled out Myrtenaster. "Truly Mistress, we shall defeat this blonde ruffian and become the strongest in this school!" The rapier shouted with a cocky tone.

"You can give up now Jaune. Save yourself the embarrassment of losing so badly to me." Weiss stated as she held Myrtenaster in an offensive position. Sadness filled Jaune as even his crush thought that he was a failure. These thoughts showed with the slight lowering of Crocea in his hand.

"Jaune," The teen looked down at his partner who for the first time, had decided to say his actual name, "we are in this together. That means we fight together, live together, and if it comes down to it then we fall together. Don't give up so easily because an overconfident rich bitch thinks that you are weak. Just ignore her because you have one thing that she doesn't,"

"What's that?" Jaune asked.

"You are Jaune Fucking Arc, and you are my partner! Now hold me up because we have to kick some ass!" Jaune smiled at his partner's encouragement and held him up at Weiss much to her confusion at where Jaune had gained this sudden confidence from.

"That was quite the…exhilarating speech old relic, but it will do naught to stop Mistress from destroying you." Myrtenaster stated.

"Shut it ya pompous prick! Now Jaune, from what I've seen of this rich bitch she is a glass cannon. She can dish hits but she can't take 'em." Jaune stared at Weiss and sized her up just as she was doing for him.

"What does that mean for me?" Jaune asked.

Crocea sighed at his partner, "You need to rush at her before she can summon up her glyphs. Take her out then, and you can dominate the battle." Jaune nodded and rushed at Weiss. She smirked and activated a glyph under her feet which she then used to give herself as speed boost as she charged at Jaune.

"Shield up and tilt slightly to the left!" Jaune followed suit as best he could and held his shield up while tilting it. Weiss' eyes widened as Myrtenaster glanced off the shield and into the crook of Jaune's arm, much to his amazement. "Squeeze your arm down and trap her!"

Jaune's arm closed like a vice upon Weiss' who in turn, tried to pull her arm out. "Got you." Jaune said.

"Bash her with your shield." Jaune pulled his arm back slightly to gain momentum. Weiss showed shock on her face at how the loser managed to stop her. She futilely held her arm up to take the impact of the shield. Jaune showed no mercy as he bashed Weiss in the face with his shield. She let out a grunt as it hit her arm into her chest.

Soon enough he got into a momentum of hitting her while listening to her grunts after each hit. "Enough!" Goodwitch's voice rang out while the lights of the auditorium turned back on. Jaune pulled his back and let Weiss' arm go. She sheathed her blade and rubbed her injured arm all the while glaring at Jaune. "Mister Arc has won the battle. If you noticed, Jaune took advantage of using his shield on Miss Schnee due to her rushing like she did." Weiss' face flushed in embarrassment at the criticism, "Miss Schnee, while your tactic of rushing may work on Grimm, human opponents are much different. I suggest you work on this when you train."

Jaune and Weiss walked off the stage. Jaune took a seat next to his team.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said. Jaune turned to look at his partner.

"What?" Pyrrha pointed at his hands. Jaune looked down to see that they had his sword and shield still out and they were slightly shaking with adrenaline.

"Thanks." Jaune said as he turned his shield back into a sheath and put Crocea into it.

"That was totally awesome Jaune! You were all cool just standing there and then when you grabbed Weiss! That was cool! You should totally teach me how to do that!" Nora said as she stood in front of Jaune.

"LITTLE BLONDE BOY DID WELL AGAINST WHITE GIRL!" Magnhild shouted from Nora's back. Ren just looked at Jaune and gave him an all knowing nod.

"Yes Mister Jaune," One light voice said from Ren's right sleeve.

"You did well." Another light voice said from Ren's left sleeve.

"Okay…" Jaune said.

"You did quite well laddie. Just be aware though that what happened was slightly lucky. If that sword went an inch higher, than what we just pulled would have never happened. Now just sit back and relax." Jaune let his head lean back in his chair.

"Jaune, you did great." Pyrrha said with a smile. Jaune lifted his head and looked Pyrrha in her green eyes.

"Thanks Pyrrha."

* * *

Team JNPR were sitting together at a table eating their lunch. While Jaune's teammates ate their food with gusto, Jaune pushed his food around with his fork. He looked across a few tables to see that Weiss was glaring at him.

"So Jaune, what do you have planned for us for the rest of the day?" Ren asked. Jaune pushed a meatball to the edge of his plate before looking up at the expecting faces of his teammates.

"Uhh, we can…"

"Go train, lad." Crocea finished.

"Go train." Jaune repeated. Ren nodded before going back to eat some more swordfish.

"That sounds awesome! I wanna see more of those cool moves that you did! Do you think that your shield could stop my hammer? Of course it probably can't but that doesn't mean we can't try it. But then again, since my weapon is apparently able to talk to you then does that mean that it hurt him? Could you please ask Magnhild?" Nora pulled her hammer from her back and transformed it from the grenade launcher mode to it's hammer form before she unceremoniously dropped it onto the table.

"MAGNHILD FEELS NO PAIN! MAGNHILD ONLY FEELS JOY FROM THE PAIN OF MINE AND LITTLE GIRL'S ENEMIES!" Magnhild responded bombastically.

"He says no." Jaune put a meatball in his mouth and looked up to see Weiss still glaring. She had been doing this for ten minute now and it was starting to freak him out. Has she even blinked since then?

"Well waste-of-skin, at least you aren't totally useless after all. I just wish that you could fight worth a damn without the old man helping you every step of the way." Miló said.

"Don't call me old you young bastard!" Crocea shouted.

"Whatever." Was the only reply Crocea received, much to his frustration. Jaune ate another meatball and gave Weiss a glance. Nora eventually picked up at what Jaune was looking at and stared at Weiss as well.

"She bugging you?" Nora asked.

"Kinda."

"Alright!" Nora said cheerily. She then grabbed a spoon and one of Jaune's meatballs while ignoring his shout of indignation. "Ready…" She put the meatball onto the bowl of the spoon, "Aim…" Nora pulled the spoon back, "…Fire!" She let the spoon go and the meatball flew in the air. A second later and it was quickly given a reply.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted. Nora pumped her fist in the air.

"Nailed it!" Nora stated. Ren smirked at this before covering it up by putting some swordfish in his mouth.

"Well the lass certainly knows trajectories quite well." Crocea stated.

"YES, LITTLE GIRL KNOWS BEST ABOUT FIRING EXPLOSIVES! THAT IS WHY WE GOOD TEAM!" Magnhild shouted.

"Alright, let's go guys, I'm done eating." Jaune said as he stood up from the ground. His teammates nodded and stood with him before all of them left the cafeteria.

* * *

 **And that is a wrap for the chapter folks. Hilariously enough, if you go to TV Tropes and look up glass cannon, Weiss is there. Along with Ren. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next week, same Jaune time, same Jaune place. Stay frosty my friends.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Four: Maces and Monsters is a Far Out Game**

* * *

Jaune had just finished running his now daily sprint with the 'encouraging' words of Crocea in his ears. He had gone six laps and was about to complete his seventh in just a few more steps. And he crossed the finish line. When he did so, he dropped to his hands and knees and vomited up his previous dinner.

"Well laddie, I was wondering when you were gonna blow chunks. You didn't do it the other days which really surprised me." Jaune opted to continue heaving out his bodily insides instead of listening to Crocea's inane chatter. After a few more heaves, Jaune slowly stood up.

"Crocea," Jaune said with a ragged voice, "how long am I going to have to do this?" Jaune then wiped his mouth of the vomit that was on it and spat on the ground.

"Well, until I deem you to be actually fit. That'll be probably a week or two." By now, Jaune didn't even show a reaction to how much shit he had been taking since he had gotten to this school. Awesome Semblance his ass.

"Jaune? Is that you?" Jaune was broken out of his thoughts at the new voice talking to him, so he turned around to see his partner Pyrrha standing by the statue in her pajamas.

"Hey Pyrrha, what are you doing up so early?" Jaune asked.

"I could ask the same of you." Pyrrha replied, "So is this what you've been doing that has been making you tired the past two days?"

"Yeah," Jaune walked over to the statue and sat down with his back against it despite his protesting leg muscles telling him not to. Pyrrha sat down next to him.

"So why are you out so early, I mean I can understand the training but doing it this early is more of a detriment than something helpful?" Pyrrha asked.

"What are you talking about? Crocea says its fine."

"Yeah, it's perfectly normal to wake up at five in the morning to run laps around a school!" Crocea exclaimed.

"Yes well, do you even know what time it is?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, it's nearly time to get ready for school." Pyrrha slightly chuckled at this.

"Jaune, it's six o'clock, how long did you think that you were running?" Jaune in response looked up at the sky to see that it was still dark much to his surprise.

"Wow laddie, you are getting faster, soon we'll have to up your lap amount. Yay!" Crocea exclaimed. Jaune banged his head against the statue in protest while Pyrrha looked at him with some confusion.

"Is it Crocea?" She asked. Even though she had been his partner for what amounted as three days and a couple hours, she knew him quite well. Then again, it does help to have a competent partner to balance out the flaws. _Damnit Jaune, stop thinking that!_ Jaune thought to himself in annoyance.

"Yeah, Crocea just said that he was going to up my lap amount. I really wish I didn't have this Semblance. Then I wouldn't have to deal with listening to all of these weapons. They just don't stop talking." Jaune put his hands on his head in futility.

"Hey, I find some offense to that…well at least to my continuous chatter. But hey, it's witty!" Crocea said. Pyrrha put her hand on Jaune's right hand and pulled it down from his head which drew his attention to her.

"Jaune, I know what it's like to have something that you don't like." Pyrrha said softly.

"What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha leaned over Jaune's legs and pulled Crocea from his sheath. She then held the blade aloft before her.

"When I first got my Semblance, I was afraid of it and unable to control it. I thought that it was going to take over my life, but then I realized," With that Pyrrha threw the sword into the air.

"What are ya doing, lassie!" Crocea screamed and prepared himself to hit the ground but instead the opposite happened. Crocea was just floating in the air. Jaune blinked before looking at a smirking Pyrrha and back to a floating Crocea.

"A-are you doing this?" Jaune asked with surprise. Pyrrha nodded.

"My Semblance is polarity, I can control metal and bend it to my whim."

"That's neato! Why would it be so bad to have a Semblance like that?" Jaune asked.

"While it may seem great at first, I had to take a long time to learn how to control my Semblance because anything metal would fly at me. My Scroll would constantly malfunction; I ate with either my hands or plastic eating utensils because anything metal would stick to my hands." Pyrrha sighed in sadness, "The worst part of it all was that my Semblance made me afraid to fight because weapons would fly at me." Pyrrha turned to Jaune and smiled.

"But I learned how to control it because I realized that my Semblance is apart of me, I'm not apart of it." Pyrrha floated Crocea back to Jaune who grabbed the handle of his partner. Pyrrha then gave Jaune the sheath which Jaune sheathed Crocea into.

"Ya know, I don't always fly in the air, but when I do I prefer to not be floating because of some damn magnetic Semblance!" Crocea screamed.

"I think I understand, Pyrrha, thanks." Jaune said as he stared at Pyrrha in her green eyes.

"It's just what partners do and besides, you're my friend so of course I would help you." Pyrrha replied.

"Once again, thanks, Pyrrha." Pyrrha put her arm on Jaune's shoulder and both just looked at the rays of light that slowly streamed over the treeline.

"That partner of yours is a keeper there, laddie. Make sure not to lose her." Crocea said. Internally Jaune agreed with his weapon since for one of the first times in his life, he actually had a friend that would try to help him at his lowest, and he wouldn't let that go for anything.

* * *

Jaune would like to say that going to the classes today was quite fun, that's what he would like to say but the truth of the matter was that Port spouted out nonsense, Oobleck spouted out too much, and now Goodwitch was balanced between the two.

"Oh look who's back, the little blonde shit ready for round two!" Jaune muttered under his breath as he took the abuse. "You know, I figured out a new name for you and it's based on your piss yellow hair. I'll call you Bitch Piss! Now get on the ground and give me fifty, Bitch Piss!" Jaune sighed and dropped to the ground before doing his pushups.

Goodwitch began calling up students to duel against each other while Jaune still did his pushups. After two fights went by, the first involved Ruby and some guy named Russell while the second involved Weiss who brutally crushed the guy named Sky, finally Jaune was called up with a guy named Cardin who wielded a large mace.

"Wow Jauney boy, I really wanted to see what you could do after you pulverized the Schnee the other day." Cardin said with a smirk.

"I…will…enjoy…crushing…you…very…much…" The mace said slowly with a tired voice.

"Okay then…" Jaune pulled Crocea out and transformed his sheath into a shield. "Let's do this." Cardin grinned at Jaune's confidence.

"I'm gonna enjoy beating you." Cardin held his mace's head at Jaune.

"Laddie, hold your shield up." Crocea ordered. Jaune did so. A second later and a red blast was launched out of the mace And hit Jaune's shield, knocking it out of his hand.

"Take…my…load…bitch…" The mace said. Jaune looked at his shield which was spinning off the stage…and it's gone. Jaune turned to look back at Cardin who was laughing. Jaune put his left hand on Crocea in order to add more strength to his swings.

"Hey Jauney boy, I heard that your Semblance is some bull about talking to weapons. Probably just as useless as you." Jaune's eyes narrowed.

"Okay, I would be perfectly okay if you just decided to chop that ass' head off." Crocea said with rage dripping from his voice. Jaune held his sword to his side and charged at Cardin who lazily watched Jaune rush at him.

When Jaune was four feet away from Cardin, he began to build up a swing with Crocea and swung at Cardin's chest. When Crocea was a foot away from making contact with the tall teen, Cardin lifted his mace much faster than Jaune would think that a mace as heavy looking as that could be moved, and blocked Crocea.

"Eat…it…bitch…" The mace said as Cardin grabbed Jaune by his collar and lifted him off the floor. This guy was a freak of nature if he's able to do this so easily.

"Hope you enjoyed playing high up with the big boys, because now I'm gonna drop you back to the ground where you belong." Cardin then smacked Jaune in the head with his mace and a grinning Cardin and the shouts of his teammates and partner were all that he could remember before the world went black for Jaune Arc.

* * *

Pyrrha thought it was quite funny as Jaune did his pushups on the ground while the teacher called out names. Pyrrha took her seat with Ren and Nora while keeping an eye on Jaune as he continued his routine.

Even Pyrrha found it hard to believe that Miss Goodwitch's weapon was such a sadist. But it was Jaune's Semblance and it was what he had to deal with, just like she had to.

The first fight that involved the boy from Team CRDL went by quickly as Ruby launched herself around the arena with equal use of her Semblance and her weapon. Pyrrha thought that Ruby put too much reliance into her weapon with the way that she never punched or kicked the boy even when she had an easy chance to do so. Regardless, Ruby showed her skill with that scythe and knocked the boy out the arena and toward Nora.

Nora at the time was chatting to Ren in a quite animated matter as the boy flew in the air towards her. Ren poked Nora in the shoulder and pointed to the flying teen. In response, Nora ducked her head down and the boy just flew over her and hit the seat behind her.

When Pyrrha looked back to the stage, Ruby was walking off of it with a sheepish look on her face.

"Will Weiss Schnee and Sky Lark, please show up onto the stage!" Goodwitch announced. The white haired girl and the blue haired boy both walked up onto the stage. The two didn't give any banter to one another and instead acted completely professional with one another.

Weiss held her rapier up to her chest with the tip of the blade aimed at Sky's. Suddenly around the stage erupted a mass of Glyphs which made Sky slightly jump in surprise. In response, the teen trained his halberd on Weiss who began the battle by running forward and being right next to the boy a second later.

She stood there for a second which gave sky the confidence to take a swing at the girl. Instead of the resistance of flesh against metal that he expected, Weiss was already on the other side of the arena. She then rushed back at the boy's exposed side and gave him a slash, then ran to a different side of the arena and came back once again.

Soon enough, Weiss was coming from all sides of the arena and Sky was just unable to handle the speed of the white haired girl. Finally Glynda called the match off as another hit from the girl would remove the last protection that his aura gave. Weiss stopped an inch from the boy with her rapier aimed at his eye. Weiss must still be angry at how Jaune beat her yesterday.

She resheathed her blade and walked off the stage while Sky just dropped his weapon and breathed deeply at how close he was to losing an eye. After regaining his breath, he embarrassingly picked up his halberd and walked off the stage in a dejected manner.

Pyrrha noticed that Jaune had stopped doing pushups and was now off the ground. He was about to turn around to walk back over to Pyrrha when Goodwitch called out, "Will Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester please come onto the stage!"

Jaune walked up to the stage with the large boy that was Cardin. Pyrrha could tell that Cardin was the type to use his strength to take advantage of others. She could tell it from the way he walked and looked as he stared at her partner.

Jaune stared at Cardin who just kept his mace slung over his shoulder. This boy was seriously strong if he could hold that mace with just one hand. Pyrrha would need to use either both her hands or her Semblance in order to use that weapon effectively.

"Wow Jauney boy, I really wanted to see what you could do after you pulverized the Schnee the other day." Pyrrha could hear Cardin say with the type of arrogant tone that she had grown used to during her time when she first began at her school. She showed those students when she beat them to the ground after she gained control over her Semblance.

"Okay then…" Pyrrha heard Jaune say as he pulled Crocea out and transformed his sheath into a shield. "Let's do this." Pyrrha smirked at the confidence Jaune was showing. Her partner was showing a lot more since the first day were he had only tried to display false bravado.

"I'm gonna enjoy beating you." A frown marred Pyrrha's face when she heard this. She didn't like anyone talking to her partner that way. She really hoped that Jaune could pull a miracle like he did yesterday.

Cardin held his mace at Jaune who in response held his shield up. At least Jaune was showing intelligence with how he fought. While he may lack a lot of skill that made up Beacon's other attendees, he certainly was able to learn quick. Most likely this was due to his Semblance.

Regardless of this, Pyrrha noticed how Cardin was fingering his mace's trigger while he aimed the head of it at Jaune. Pyrrha could tell immediately that it must be where Cardin would fire a blast out of it.

She was proven correct as a second later, the shot was fired and Jaune's shield was launched out of his hand and spun off the stage and at her feet. Pyrrha looked down at the shield and picked it up. She then clicked the button on the handle of the shield and the shield shrunk into its sheath.

Pyrrha looked up to see Jaune standing with only a sword in his hand. "Hey Jauney boy, I heard that your Semblance is some bull about talking to weapons. Probably just as useless as you." Pyrrha noticed Jaune's eyes narrow which made her wonder, how did Cardin find this out? She put that thought away for later because now she noticed that Jaune was getting angry.

This was a powder keg waiting to go off. Pure anger was a terrible drive when trying to fight. It made you sloppy, it made focus disappear from what the target was doing to the target itself.

Jaune grabbed his sword with his other hand and took a charge at Cardin who had his mace swinging lazily by his feet. _This was a trap_ , Pyrrha thought. There was no way that someone would seem that calm in battle unless they were completely controlling the outcome of the battle itself. Pyrrha could already tell the battle was over before Jaune made the swing.

A second later and Cardin lifted his mace up and blocked Jaune's blade. Cardin then grabbed Jaune's collar and lifted him off the ground.

"Hope you enjoyed playing high up with the big boys, because now I'm gonna drop you back to the ground where you belong." Cardin then pulled his arm back. Pyrrha could tell that Cardin was going for a one hit KO.

Pyrrha was proven right when the Cardin's mace hit Jaune in the head. She could hear the mace break through Jaune's aura and hit him in the head. Pyrrha gasped in slight shock at the brutality of it all. Nora and Ren also showed discomfort at the thrashing the Jaune received.

"I'm going to break his legs." Nora growled out and tried to get out of her chair in order to honor this threat but Ren held her back in her seat. Pyrrha looked at Ren and nodded to him. He nodded back in silent agreement and she got out of her seat.

"Miss Goodwitch, I'll take Jaune to the infirmary." Pyrrha stated. The blonde teacher nodded at Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked away from the woman and walked up onto the stage. She glared at Cardin before she picked up Jaune's sword and sheathing it.

Pyrrha then threw Jaune's arm over her shoulder and lifted off the ground before taking him off the stage and down the aisle of the auditorium. Students cleared the way as she did this but much to her general annoyance, Weiss had a smirk on her face at the defeat of Jaune. _Bitch_. Pyrrha thought.

* * *

Crocea felt slightly disappointed at how the lad was so easily beaten down. Then again, while they were working on the lad's stamina, they had not worked at all on his skill. Instead he had just told the lad what to do during the fight.

This would not help the lad in the slightest and instead only hinder him. The lad needed to develop his skill and experience without help all the time.

When the lad woke up, Crocea would tell him to train with his red-headed partner. The lad needed to be able to learn how to fight normally. Crocea figured that he would just give pointers from now on. He should've tried to stop Jaune from rushing in while angry. This truly was a failure he would learn from, after all, the lad wasn't like Acier when he first began fighting during the war.

Then again, what was happening with his old partner anyway? Acier was quite used to using Crocea after all, so what would he do without his trusty blade by his side like before.

Crocea just prayed that Acier wasn't giving hell to anyone like he usually did. Well…maybe the more violent White Fang group could use quite a bit of a thrashing from his old partner. Then again, beating up a bunch of Faunus could possibly be considered a hate crime.

* * *

In a weapon's shot, Acier was busy looking over the selection of weapons in stock. All of them were completely different to what he was used to. He saw a blue sword, it would be something that he would usually choose, but it had a frigging rifle grip attached to the bottom.

A spear, bah! It had a rocket launcher right behind the spear head. All of these damn weapons these days were mixed up with guns. Acier walked up to the front desk where a man in a blue baseball cap with a gray shirt and jeans sat on a stool. The man had bright red hair that curled out from under his hat.

"Hey." Acier said. The man just sat on his stool ignoring Acier.

"Hey." Acier said with a louder tone. The red-head still ignored Acier. He rolled his eyes and slammed his fist on the counter. The red-head jumped and slowly looked up at Acier.

"Hey man, welcome to the Gunny's shop! We sell the best weapons in all of Remnant." The man said in a slow tone.

"Do you possibly have a weapon without a gun attachment?" Acier asked through clenched teeth.

"Uhh, yeah. Have you looked at the swords?" The red-head asked.

"I did, all of them have guns attached to them."

"Well some of them have rocket launchers attached to them." Acier sighed.

"Do you have something without a gun or a rocket attached to it?"

"Yeah man," The red-head began to scratch his chest before pulling a halberd from under the front desk, "this has a paintball feature attached to it." Acier twitched at the stupidity of the clerk before him.

"Do…you…have…anything…else?" Acier asked while breathing heavily after each word, his face grew redder and redder as this went on.

"Yeah man," The red-head reached under his desk again and pulled a gray gauntlet from underneath before setting it on the counter.

"Does this have ANY gun attachments to it?" Acier asked as he glared at the clerk.

"Not really, we did find it like, in a crime scene. Thought it looked cool so I picked it up." The clerk responded.

"Wait, you went to a crime scene and picked up some vital fucking evidence which you proceeded to take, JUST because it looked cool?" Acier asked in disbelief. The clerk paused for a moment and thought about this.

"Well, yeah man." Acier was about to pull his hair out of his head from this clerk's incompetence.

"Ya know what! Fuck it! Just give me the damn weapon!" Acier shouted. He then took the lien from his pocket and threw it all on the table. "There! Keep the fucking change!" Acier grabbed the gauntlet and put it on his left hand. "Now, how the fuck do I work this thing?!"

"Well man, you need to press a button under it in order to like, turn it on." Acier did so and the gauntlet grew plates from it which slit up his arm and to his shoulder while the fingers of the gauntlet grew into foot long talons. "Now could you like, go. I am going on break to take some of my…'medicinal dust' if you know what I mean."

"I wish I could kill you right now…" Acier growled out.

"Hey man, make love, not…I think I forgot that other bit." Acier turned away from the desk and walked out the front door before turning around.

"It's fucking war!" With that, Acier slammed the door hard enough to crack the glass of the door.

As Acier walked away from the shop, he had to take some deep breathes in order to calm himself down. He could already tell that his blood pressure was going to rise today. His doctor was probably going to throw a fit about it but by now, he just didn't give a shit.

Acier wondered how Jaune was doing at that moment. Personally, he really wished that he made a copy of Crocea because he realized that when the sword was first made, that he was absolutely terrible at forging.

He just hoped that Jaune didn't inherit his terrible skill at forging, or that in bad luck.

He hoped, but it probably was a false one at that…

* * *

 **And so another chapter is done. Also ghost83, there you go. Hoped you enjoyed that bit. Now it's my first Q/A comments time because whatever.**

 **Jacob: I'm a dude.**

 **Ddragon21: Wait 'til next chapter.**

 **Kirjoltabls: Maybe…**

 **The Dark Deceiver: Possibly…**

 **DocSlendy: I might just validate that.**

 **Dareth: It was on purpose.**

 **Everyone Else: I am hilarious, see you next time. Stay frosty my friends.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter 5: Hospitals Suck and Asses Are Kicked**

* * *

Jaune could easily say that this was one of the largest headaches he had ever had in his life. He could just hear a constant pounding in his head that just wouldn't go away and every second felt like a year of torment. Truly this was-

"Hey laddie, hope that you're awake because you have been snoozing for way too long!" Scratch that, the headache just got much worse. Jaune groaned and slowly opened his eyes which let in the light of the horrible day since it made the migraine grow.

"Crocea, why can't you just shut up right now? Can somebody just kill me because my headache is doing pretty well in causing cruel and unusual punishment?" Jaune whined.

"Oh stop being such a whiny bitch, laddie. We will need to work on skill training when you get out of here, what with the big fuck up where Cardin managed to fuck up your face." Jaune rubbed his temples as he looked around the room that he was in, a white sterile room which gave Jaune a slight shiver up his spine.

"Shut up Crocea." Jaune replied and looked over on a table next to him to see Crocea placed against the table.

"At least my ass wasn't laid up in a bed for the past few hours." Jaune stopped rubbing his head and looked over to Crocea with a shocked expression.

"What do you mean by that?" Crocea sighed at his partner.

"Lad, you've been unconscious since your fight. It was quite a heavy hit that you took from that mace. I think that thing might've weighed around 15 pounds. Really is amazing that Cardin can swing it one handed like that. Either way, we need to work on your skill so that you can keep up with all the students here." Crocea said with a hint of excitement.

"How can you help me with skill when you're just a sword? It doesn't help that you don't have a body that can hold a weapon." Jaune replied. Crocea gasped at this.

"Are you insulting my metal?!"

"What-"

"I'll have you know that my body is made of a rare mix of dust and titanium! I am perfectly molded in every way and unbreakable unlike your flimsy fleshy body, boy! Don't you dare try to insult what I am!" This slightly confused Jaune because he knew for a fact that his grandfather was a terrible craftsman…and cook. It was horrible when during his birthday, gramps decided to make the cake, a horrid gray blob that Jaune thought was possibly sentient. It still sat on Jaune's desk at home and it moved sometimes as well as absorbed any food that Jaune put before it. He called it Slippy.

"So how could gramps have crafted you when he's terrible at building things?" Jaune asked. Crocea stammered at this.

"Uhh…I'll tell you one day, boy." Crocea responded quickly, "But that still doesn't stop me from being pissed at you, boy! I have been trying my best to help ya' but clearly what we are doing isn't enough."

"And what will be?" Jaune asked.

"I have come to realize that over the years of being with Acier, I have completely adapted to how he fought. He was skilled to start but weak. You on the other hand are different. You're much weaker, less skilled, and quite possibly a failure at hitting on women," Each point Crocea put across to Jaune only lowered his self esteem, "but, you are someone who I have come to realize is willing to go above and beyond the distance in order to become better." Jaune's eyes widened at what Crocea said.

"But we've only been training for a few days." Jaune responded.

"Jaune, it truly is quite amazing to me that someone so out of shape like you has managed to still continue a training regimen that you absolutely hate and I am happy about it. The only problem is that I can't help you in every aspect of fighting and that is why we are going to get your other partner to help you out during this. But first you have to take the first step and get out of this bed." Jaune groaned at this and pushed himself into a sitting position before he pushed the sheet off his body and stood on the ground.

Jaune grabbed Crocea and strapped him to his side. Then he walked to the door of the infirmary but before he could leave he heard a loud, "Stop!" Jaune stopped and turned around to see a woman with a white lab coat walk up to him.

"Where do you think that you're going young man?" The woman asked him. Jaune assumed that she was the doctor here but he voice was really grating on his ears with it's pitch.

"I'm getting some food." Jaune replied. The woman shook her head and her black ponytail flapped behind her.

"There will be none of that. You need to get back into bed and rest after that hit you took." She said taking a stand against Jaune's idea.

"Come on, I'm hungry and I want to get out of here!" Jaune replied. The nurse shook her head in response.

"Laddie, back towards the door very slowly otherwise you will never get out of here. Do not underestimate the power of a determined nurse." Crocea stated. He could clearly remember the times when Acier had tried to escape any hospital that he was stuck in over the years. Each and every time, the nurses were adamant about not allowing him to leave the hospitals. Those nurses were really skilled at using their bedpans to dish out pain. Crocea would shiver if he could at this. Jaune manage to back his way to the door.

"Hey, uh…I think that your idea about me staying here is great and all," Jaune said while fumbling with the door handle until he twisted the knob open. When this happened, Jaune felt a sense of victory enter himself as he grinned at the blonde nurse, "But I'm not staying here." Jaune stated. The Nurse gained an evil look in her eyes before pulling out from behind her a shining bedpan.

"Get back into bed or I will use this to make you get into bed." The nurse stated. In response, Jaune quickly opened the door and slipped out leaving the nurse to let out a loud screech. Jaune just ran as fast as he could away from the infirmary and pulled out his Scroll. He read the time that it displayed which read 7:15.

"Oh man, dinner is already happening." Jaune said as he ran to the cafeteria. Behind him, he could hear the nurse chasing after him.

"Hurry up laddie, this bitch isn't stopping!" Jaune picked up his speed as he heard the nurse calling after him. He pressed some buttons on his Scroll and ran outside where he saw his Rocket Locker land before him. Jaune smirked at this as a plan had already formed in his mind. He looked around the Beacon courtyard for a hiding place and decided to run back to the doorway and press himself against the wall next to it.

The nurse ran past him with her bedpan in hand and slowed down when she saw the locker. She grinned as she believed her patient to finally be cornered. "Well then, I thought you were going to put up more of a fight and hide from me in a better location. But a locker, really?" The nurse asked as she walked up to the locker. She put her hand against the locker's code panel. "Never hide in a locker with a technological lock when someone with a semblance to open any lock is looking for you." The locker opened up and the nurse grinned.

"Now come back to the infirmary or else I will have to get physical." The nurse said as she pulled the locker door open to reveal and empty locker. She didn't have any time to feel shock at this revelation as Jaune ran up behind her and pushed her inside while closing the door behind her. Jaune pressed a button on his scroll and the locker took off with a screaming nurse inside.

Jaune and Crocea let out a whoop of joy when this happened. "Thank God that woman is gone. I thought she was going to kill me with that bedpan." Jaune said while slowing his breathing down.

"Aye laddie, that bitch of a witch was quite annoying. At least we won't have to deal with her for now." Jaune's eyes widened with realization.

"I'm going to have to deal with her again, aren't I?" Jaune asked.

"With your luck, yes." Crocea responded with a matter-of-factly tone.

"You know what, screw it. I'm just going to get my dinner and eat it. Then I will worry about the crazy nurse later." With that, Jaune headed to the cafeteria.

* * *

Outside the doors to what Jaune could smell was delicious food, he could hear the chatter of students as they ate. Jaune's stomach rumbled with the desire to be fed and so Jaune pushed the doors open and entered the area.

Jaune looked around and eventually noticed his team eating their dinner. Jaune walked over to them. When he was twenty feet away from them, Nora finally noticed him approaching and gave him a wave with a hand that was holding a drumleg. Jaune chuckled at his teammate as he walked over to them. As he was walking by he didn't notice a foot stuck out before him.

"Lad, stop immediately!" Crocea screamed. Jaune did as he was asked. "Mister Compensation himself tried to trip you, look down." Jaune did so and saw a foot which when he looked up he saw that Cardin was slightly scowling.

Jaune walked around Cardin and continued on his way, "So why did you call Cardin Mister Compensation?" Jaune asked.

"The brat uses a long metal pole that extends itself and fires explosions out of the end. You do the math." Jaune began to chuckle at this.

"You're right about that. How come I have never thought of that?" Jaune asked.

"Because you're not as old or experienced enough to dish out insults like I can. Now let's eat some grub." Jaune was now standing before his teammates. He took a seat next to Pyrrha who smiled at her partner.

"So how are you Jaune? You took a really bad hit earlier. Are you sure that you were allowed out of the infirmary?" Pyrrha asked with a voice laced in concern.

"Of course I was." As he said this he noticed his locker flying past the windows. He turned to look back at Pyrrha with a smile in order to reassure her.

"Jaune, you managed to kick Weiss' butt earlier, why couldn't you do the same to Cardin? Do you want me to break his legs for you?" Nora asked in her usual rapid fire tone which Jaune had gotten used to by now.

"I guess I just beat Weiss by luck. I am definitely going to need to get stronger in order to beat Cardin though." Jaune responded as he pulled up a plate and filled it with food. Nora appeared on Jaune's side of the table which made him jump slightly before she put her arm around his shoulder.

"Don't worry Jaune, we'll help you get stronger so that you'll be able to break Cardin's legs all by yourself!" Nora replied and then grabbed a piece of chicken off of Jaune's plate and shoved it into her mouth. Jaune felt Nora's arm slip off his shoulder as he turned to face her but she was gone. Jaune looked around before spotting her on the other side of the table.

"How did you get to the other side of the table?" Jaune asked with slight shock.

"I went to ninja school!" Nora replied.

Ren smirked at what Nora said as he swallowed his food. "She just crawled under the table." Ren stated simply much to the disappointment of Nora.

"Renny, why did you have to spoil that?" Nora asked with an annoyed groan.

"Thanks Ren." Jaune said. Ren held out his fist as he dipped his spoon in soup. Jaune bumped the fist with his own.

"Bro-code." Ren stated and sipped on his soup. Nora crossed her arms over her chest with a pout upon her face.

"Bro-code means nothing over friend-code, Ren." Nora said with barely contained anger.

"Bro-code means everything." Ren replied. Nora threw her arms in the air in exasperation as she gave up with arguing against Ren against this. Ren just kept his small smirk on his face as he continued eating as if nothing was wrong. Jaune ate his food and watched this battle of wills as it played out while internally laughing at his teammates eccentricities.

"So Pyrrha," Jaune asked as he set his fork down, "I was wondering if you could help train me?" Pyrrha smiled at her partner and nodded.

"I would be glad to help you, Jaune." Pyrrha responded much to Jaune's happiness.

"So would we!" Jaune and Pyrrha turned from each other to see their other teammates looking at them with Nora standing on the bench that she was previously sitting on. "We'll make you the greatest leader ever, and then we'll take over every castle in the land for the Pancake Empire!" She exclaimed which drew some stares from the students of other tables.

"What Nora means is that we'll help." Ren stated.

"What he said!" Nora agreed as she sat back in her seat. Jaune smiled at his teammates' encouragement.

Crocea was quite happy at this development. His partner was doing quite well for himself. He could tell that the lad would get all the training he needed for his teammates. He would just need to sit back and watch the magic as the lad would get trained and Crocea wouldn't need to lift a single finger, well maybe he would help…a bit…alright, he would definitely help the lad. All the Arc's were unnaturally gifted with some terrible luck. Jaune would be just fine…

 **[The Next Day]**

"Are you trying to kill me?!" Jaune asked as he ran around the forest that he and his team had found. Covering the forest floor were smoking craters while the trees had many bullet holes that littered their trunks.

"We are training you Jaune. Now dodge!" Nora shouted as she fired another grenade at Jaune who jumped out of the way to avoid the explosion.

"RUN LITTLE JAUNE BOY! YOU ARE TO BE COVERED IN ALL OF MAGNHILD'S EXPLOSIONS!" The hammer shouted out.

"Why does that sound sexual!?" Jaune asked. He turned around to see Pyrrha taking aim with Miló. "Oh shit!" Jaune ran to a tree and hid behind it as Pyrrha fired off shots at him.

"Stay still and die waste-of-skin." Miló said as Pyrrha transformed the weapon into his sword form while she pulled her shield off her back. She then began to charge at the tree that Jaune hid behind.

"Alright laddie, keep your shield up because we are about to take a pounding." Crocea ordered. Jaune nodded and did as he was told. When he looked beyond his shield, he could see Ren with his pistols StormFlower aimed at his face. Ren took aim and fired at his leader. Jaune was backed against the tree. Just as Jaune was about to try and make a break from his position, Pyrrha had her weapon against Jaune's throat.

Jaune lowered his sword and shield in an act of surrender. "Alright guys, you got me." Pyrrha took her blade off Jaune's neck while Ren lowered his weapon. Nora ran over to her team with her hammer strapped to her back.

"Well Jaune, at least you managed to last longer than you did last time." Pyrrha complemented. Jaune smiled at his partner.

"Yeah, you lasted two minutes longer than last time!" Nora shouted.

"YES, YOUR FIGHTING SPIRIT BRINGS HONOR TO THE TEAM! SOON WE WILL TAKE OVER THE SCHOOL AND THEN…DA WARUDO!"

"Alright Magnhild, I get it." Jaune replied.

"You," "Will do," "Better," Next time." Both the Storm and Flower parts of Ren's weapons stated. Jaune felt that at this rate, he would eventually become strong enough to not be a liability to his team.

"So, want to do this again?" Jaune asked.

"Definitely." Pyrrha said and looked at both Ren and Nora, "You two, get into position." The two teens nodded with Ren disappearing into the foliage without a sound while Nora trudged about making as much noise as possible. This left Jaune and Pyrrha alone. "Alright Jaune," Pyrrha said while transforming Miló into his rifle mode, "you better run." Jaune nodded and took off.

"Run run run, as fast as you can, you can't escape me, no one can." Miló said ominously. Pyrrha began to fire while noises of guns and screaming filled the forest.

Just another day in the life of Jaune…

* * *

 **So I kinda slacked off on the chapter…no shit. Anyway, I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope to see you again. Oh yeah, I wanted to ask all of you about a poll I'm making. Do you want to have a prologue of Acier and Crocea? I've been thinking about it for a while and I can't decide if I would make it so just head to the poll on my profile. Anyway, stay frosty my friends.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Six: Walk and Talk**

* * *

It had been a week since Jaune had started his new training routine. He had managed to somehow survive if you would call it that, the training under his teammates. Regardless of the massive amounts of pain he had to deal with the results were worth the effort. This was especially noticeable in combat training as while he was beaten many times he had managed to hold off slightly longer for each battle he went through.

He thought that it was probably from dealing with the multiple combat styles that each of his teammates used which forced him to become a lot more adaptive in the field. Right now though, he was taking a break from combat as he felt too sore to be able to continue another day.

As Jaune walked through the hallways of Beacon, he halfheartedly listened to Crocea talk his ear off. "And that was how Acier managed to talk the female assassins into his bed. It truly was amazing with what that man could do. A shame that he settled down but then again, the woman he settled with was quite the beauty. She had great big-"

"Please don't finish that statement. I think that you are giving me way too much information." Jaune said quickly in order to interrupt his partner.

"Tracts of land, laddie!"

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Jaune asked as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew that he should've left Crocea in his room today. Why didn't he?

"I'm just telling you this so that you'll be much better equipped for the future!"

"And how do stories about sex help better equip me or the future?"

"It's so that you'll be prepared for when you have to deal with female assassins and are unable to use me. You may have to instead use your…other sword. But I think you can probably get some training in before your four years here are up." Crocea said with a tone of pride. Jaune ignored the inane statement and went around a corner and bumped into the chest of someone. Jaune rubbed his head before looking up at whoever bumped into him.

"Watch where you're go-" He saw the smirking expression of Opzin: Headmaster of Beacon, "-ing…" Jaune's eyes widened comically. "I'm so sorry Ozpin!" Jaune said quickly.

"It's no issue, Mr. Arc. So where would you be off to in such a hurry?" Ozpin asked as he took a sip of coffee. The cane in Ozpin's other hand just gave off a curious humming sound.

"I was just taking a walk. I am a little tired today so I didn't want to train with my team." Jaune replied. He could feel his body temperature slightly rise from nervousness.

"Well then, do you mind if I walk with you? It becomes so dreary when I walk without company."

"Y-yeah." Jaune replied. Ozpin just gave off this type of vibe that you couldn't say no to him or else you would feel disappointed in the long run.

"Then lead the way, Mr. Arc." Jaune nodded and began walking once again while Ozpin in turn strode next to him, all the while his cane tapped on the ground. A peaceful silence pervaded the area as they walked together, at least until Ozpin decided to interrupt it. "So Mr. Arc, how has your time at Beacon been?"

"F-fine. I have been doing well enough, especially now that my teammates have been helping me."

"Don't forget about me, lad!" Crocea added.

"Yeah you too." Jaune replied. Ozpin chuckled at this. Jaune looked at Ozpin in confusion.

"Why are you laughing, sir?" Jaune asked. Ozpin took a few seconds to regain his composure before looking back at Jaune.

"I find it quite funny that you have such a unique Semblance. It is an interesting one to say the least."

"It's not the best Semblance. I mean, all my teammates' Semblances could beat me pretty easily in a fight." Jaune replied in a deprecating manner.

"Not all Semblances need to be used for action. Sure there are Semblances that could trounce yours in combat," Jaune felt his spirits dampen at this, "but then there are the Semblances that would beat others in different areas. For instance, look at Yang's. Hers is one made for action. She can become stronger with every hit she takes and unleash it all in order to strengthen herself. But what if she was in a situation where diplomacy was needed. A Semblance like that would be mostly useless while a Semblance like yours could allow you to connect to others much more easily." Jaune smiled at this. "But in the end it's not the Semblance that makes you strong, it's you."

Jaune took a moment to think on what Ozpin said. It was true that while his Semblance was one that was not combat oriented; it certainly did help him with studying during classes as Blundast would usually tell him the answers to questions. In Oobleck's classes it was a completely different story. His weapon was usually too hopped up on whatever it was that any answers he gave out were either too fast or made no sense. Crocea had to back him up on that end.

Still, he had definitely felt much better than he had ever felt during his time at his previous schools. In his other schools, he was the social outcast as he was always much weaker than everyone else. His dreams of being a Huntsman were ridiculed by his other classmates who made him lonely at school. The only people that he could talk to without being mocked were his sisters and every year at school would mean that one of his sisters would leave making the amount of friends he had at school less and less. He could pretty much count on his grandfather to be his best friend when it came down in the end.

Now though, with his Semblance that allowed him to talk to weapons he had made friends from both his teammates' weapons as well as his teammates. He could definitely understand what Ozpin was saying now. "Thank you, sir." Jaune replied.

"Your welcome, Mr. Arc. You know, you remind me of your grandfather when he was around your age." Jaune looked up at Ozpin curiously.

"You knew gramps when he was a kid?" Jaune asked. Ozpin took another sip of coffee before replying.

"Yes, we have known each other for a long time. We both fought together during the Great War. He was a lot more subdued than he is now."

"But Crocea told me all the things he did when he was younger!" Jaune replied.

"I suppose so. But when he first entered the war, he was a nervous young man with everything to prove. And prove he did. You should ask him about it one day." Ozpin gained a far off look on his face as he thought about different days. Now that Jaune thought about it, he remembered what his grandfather said before he got on the ship to Beacon.

" _I know the headmaster of the school. We're pretty good friends and I even managed to convince him to let you in with a fake transcript."_

"So why did you let me into Beacon if you knew about how I hadn't attended a combat school in the first place?" Jaune asked.

"I let you in because I trusted your grandfather's opinion. It hasn't led me wrong before and it still hasn't let me down since. After all, you have shown great promise these past few days even though you have had no previous training. I trust that part of the help came because of Crocea."

"Damn straight." Crocea replied. A buzzing sound made itself known from Ozpin's pocket. Ozpin pulled from his pocket, his scroll which he opened up. He pressed a button and the buzzing stopped. Ozpin stopped walking and Jaune did the same.

"What was that about?" Jaune asked.

"Well Mr. Arc, I need to get back to my office. I have some business to attend to. I found our talk to be quite interesting. Would you mind having another one of these chats again?" Ozpin asked while sipping on his coffee.

"Sure. I like it as well." Ozpin nodded before he began to walk away. Jaune was about to turn around when he heard a new voice.

"Boy," Jaune turned back to look at Ozpin's cane. "Yes it is me who is speaking." The cane said with a voice of a woman who had lived through many experiences and was now weary of the world. "Now that I have met you, there is one thing I have to say."

"What?" Jaune asked.

"You are an oddity. I say this because only weapons can communicate with other weapons. Make of it what you will. And Crocea, it was nice to see you again." Ozpin rounded a corner and both he and the cane were out of view.

Jaune looked down at Crocea and shrugged in confusion. "That cane was weird." Jaune stated. Jaune felt that if Crocea had shoulder he would be shrugging them.

"Agreed. Then again, she was always the odd one. But she is a good friend to have. Sturdy, reliable, made of great material, perfect design," Jaune laughed at this. "What is it, lad? It's perfectly natural to respect someone's design!" Crocea stated indignantly.

"Wow, I would've never thought that you would like someone like that. You were very descriptive about her even though she is just a friend." Jaune replied smugly.

"What do you know? You are the guy who managed to piss off his crush, and ignore others when they want you. You're hopeless."

"So how long have you been hopeless?"

"Way too long." The two took a moment to process all of this before both of them began laughing. Jaune wiped a tear that was gathering at the corner of his eye.

"We are just two hopeless guys in a world where girls are confusing." Jaune stated while he walked back towards his dorm.

"Yeah, that is true. Maybe one day we'll both learn how to talk to the lasses, eh?" Jaune nodded in reply. He continued walking for a while until a red blur rushed up from behind him and grabbed his arm before running with him in tow.

"What the hell!" Both Jaune and Crocea screamed as they were dragged down the hallways until they reached the dorms where they and the red blur entered and finally stopped. The red blur finally let him go which made Jaune collapse on the ground. When he looked up he looked around to see a few weapons set up in a circle around him.

Jaune turned his head to see who this red blur was. He already had a guess as to who it was. He looked at the innocent silver eyes of Ruby. "Hey Jaune!" She greeted with a wave. Jaune looked back at the weapons surrounding him.

"What's with all the weapons?" Jaune asked.

"Blonde boy, save me! The hooded one stole me from my Mistress!" Myrtenaster shouted.

"Calm down. Your yelling annoys me." A gravely voice stated. Jaune turned to look at a think gray sheathed blade with a black ribbon trailing off of it.

"Shush you metallic mongrel! My Mistress could easily defeat you and your feline animal!" Myrtenaster replied back. The sheathed blade growled in reply.

"Hey you, white bitch's tool!" A gold bracelet beneath a matching bracelet with a female voice shouted.

"We made yo' Mistress look like a fool!" The other bracelet with a male voice shouted.

"Awooga Awooga!" Myrtenaster groaned.

"Miss Rose, how can you possibly stand these two…imbeciles!?" Myrtenaster asked in disbelief. Jaune turned to look at Ruby, or more appropriately, her weapon.

"W-well, we h-have been together for a while… T-they are r-really nice when you get to k-know them." Crescent rose replied.

"Oh Miss Rose, I feel so sorry that one such as elegant as you must deal with these barbaric beings." Jaune cocked his head in confusion. Why the hell is it that the rapier was nice to Ruby's weapon yet he was a prick to everyone else?

"Hey fool!"

"That's a tool,"

"Stop hittin' on our sister, ya' cool?"

"Righty, that was a bad rhyme."

"Sorry, Lefty."

"It's fine. We'll work on it next time." Lefty comforted. Jaune got into a sitting position before turning himself to look at Ruby who had now set her weapon in the circle with the others.

"So Ruby, why did you bring me here?" Jaune asked. Ruby looked a little nervous before she decided to reply.

"I kinda wanted you to do some interpreting with the weapons because I thought it would be really cool." Ruby then slid on the floor and grabbed Jaune's hands in her own. "Could you please do it, pretty please?" Ruby begged.

Jaune looked at how Ruby was pouting and felt torn about what to do. The puppy dog eyes were also really selling it. Jaune rolled his eyes before finally relenting. "Fine, I'll do it."

Ruby grabbed him in a tight hug and squeezed him as tightly as she could. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ruby cried out.

While this may have been a touching moment to Jaune, it would have been better if he could actually breathe. After a while, Jaune patted Ruby on the back and Ruby pulled her head away from Jaune's chest. Jaune pointed to his throat and Ruby quickly let go of him. Jaune greedily gulped some air until he felt satisfied that his lungs were full of the wonderful life giving oxygen.

"Sorry Jaune." Ruby apologized.

"It's fine. Let's just get to weapon interpreting." With that Jaune and Ruby looked at the other weapons in the circle.

"Hey weapons, what's life like as a weapon? Is it cool?" Ruby asked which gained the attention of the weapons.

"I haven't really thought of it that much, lass." Crocea replied.

"We think it rules!"

"Even if we have to deal with tools!" Righty and Lefty replied. Jaune told Ruby this which made her laugh.

"Are my sister's weapons always so…rhymie?" Ruby asked.

"That isn't a word." Jaune and Myrtenaster replied together. Jaune looked at the rapier with some confusion at how they could actually agree on something. Ruby rolled her eyes in response.

"So you young bits of metal, could ya' tell me what your team is like?" Crocea asked.

"W-well, they a-are certainly ex-excitable."

"I've dealt with worse. Taurus and Taurus's weapon was so much worse than these guys. They were also quite creepy…and abusive…to me and Blake." Gambol stated which Jaune repeated. Everyone looked at Gambol when he said this.

Ruby was the first to find her voice. "What do you mean that someone was abusive to Blake?"

"Well, her ex was an abusive prick who would beat and threaten her repeatedly. I was quite happy when she finally left the asshole after all the abuse she took from him. Especially with how he basically turned the White Fang into the group of mass murdering racists that they are today." Ruby and Jaune's dropped at this.

"Blake's boyfriend was apart of the White Fang?!" Ruby shouted.

"Yeah, Blake was also apart of it as well."

"But Blake's not a…faunus…" Ruby became deathly quiet after this.

Jaune decided to speak up as Ruby was bust contemplating the revelation that she was now facing. "So if Blake and you were once apart of the White Fang, then why did you leave?" Jaune asked.

Gambol sighed at this. "Originally the group was just peaceful a bunch of protesters until a few dissenters in the ranks led by Taurus decided to lead the group into more violent protests. When Blake saw what the group had become, she decided to take one final mission which she used in order to escape and cut ties with the group."

"So what should I do about this information? I can't just stand by and not tell Blake or the others about what I know." Ruby asked as she finally managed to find her voice.

"If you wish for the best for Blake, then I need both you and Jaune to let Blake talk about this when she feels ready." Ruby nodded at this. "Thank you, Ruby."

"So old man," Righty said. Crocea focused his attention on the bracelet.

"Don't call me old you shiny shit!"

"Alright, Alright. So anyways, why aren't you in a museum or a battlefield?" Righty asked.

"Oh shush you. Don't you know that is rude?"

"Sorry Lefty." Ruby laughed at how Righty was so subservient to Lefty.

"It's fine. Now Mr. Mors, why is such a respectable blade like you in a school instead of somewhere more important?" Jaune could easily tell from this conversation that Lefty had the pants in this relationship.

"I am here because the lad is here. Wherever he goes, I go. We are partners after all." Crocea responded. Ruby looked at Jaune with a grin.

"That's so sweet." Ruby stated. Jaune blushed at this.

"We're just bros."

"Bros before hoes!" Righty shouted.

"What was that about hoes?!" Lefty asked with righteous anger and furious vengeance. Righty just stuttered before becoming quiet. "That is exactly what I thought."

"Y-you two a-are always ar-arguing with one another. Y-you should act m-much more h-happy." Crescent said.

"Yes, listen the Miss Rose. She is quite right, you bumbling barbarians." Myrtenaster interjected.

"Hey!" Righty and Lefty shouted. As they said this, the door behind the group of teens and weapons opened quite violently. Jaune and Ruby turned around to see Weiss, Blake, and Yang standing in the doorway with annoyed looks on their faces.

"So this is where our weapons went." Weiss stated with her arms folded over her chest. Yang couldn't hold the annoyed look on her face for long as a massive grin grew on her face.

"Wow Ruby, just like home isn't it. You: playing with your weapons and mine." Yang stated. Ruby gained a sheepish look as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"At least this time the weapons can actually talk." Ruby replied.

"So that explains why you brought Jaune here. For a second there I thought that you and Jaune were going to have some fun with our weapons if you know what I mean." Yang winked at Jaune who was openly gawking at the lewd phrasing of Ruby's supposed older sister.

"I-I think I better get going!" Jaune said quickly before grabbing Crocea, standing up, and walking out of the room. He could hear the girls snickering.

"Was it something I said?" Yang asked with a giggle at the end.

"Crocea, I still don't think that I'll ever understand girls."

"Laddie, that is definitely an understatement. I've been alive for over eighty years and I still don't understand the female mind fully." Jaune and Crocea walked up to their dorm room and opened the door to reveal Nora standing next to the weapons of their teammates.

"Hey Jaune! I had a totally awesome idea and I was just about to go looking for you!" Nora shouted. Jaune's eyes widened before he quickly shut the door and ran away.

"Not again!" Jaune shouted.

* * *

 **Well, that took a long while to make. And I'm sorry. But in order to appease all of you, I have decided to make…**

 **An Omake! Also, I would like to thank Kegi Springfield for the new cover. You rock bro.  
**

* * *

Ozpin walked down the hallways and towards his office as he usually did. He sipped on his coffee and his cane tapped on the ground as he walked. "This is an especially good blend today," Ozpin noted as he took another sip. "I should really ask Bart what he puts into it."

Today felt slightly different than usual. He could definitely say that it started when he took that sip of coffee. It was quite addictive much unlike the supply that he usually drank from. Why would that be?

Ozpin thought back upon how he had had around five cups of this delicious brew and yet he still wanted more. It was like…It was like…Ozpin could feel a wet substance coming from his nose. Usually he would be quite alarmed at something like this yet instead he calmly put his finger in the wetness and held it out before his eyes.

It was brown. A rich chocolate brown. Oddly enough, he couldn't control himself when he then licked the brown off his finger. He wasn't disgusted by this at all. In fact, it tasted just like the delicious coffee he was drinking right now. He looked at his mug and quickly took another sip.

What the hell?! Ozpin began to take off at blinding speed through the hallways. He needed…he must have…

Coffee!

"Oobleck, I need you right now!" Ozpin shouted as he ran. He guessed that Oobleck was most likely in his classroom so Ozpin rushed to the area in desperation. When he got to the door of the classroom, Ozpin pushed it open to reveal…

Oobleck was sitting at his desk. Now this would be quite normal except that instead of grading papers or some such, he had his head held over a pot of coffee. What horrified Ozpin was how Oobleck was vomiting what looked like brown…

Coffee?

Ozpin's eyes widened just as Oobleck looked up from what he was doing and instead was now looking at the intruder in his classroom. Brown sludge mixed with liquid dribbled down his chin. "Ozpin, you were not supposed to see this…" Oobleck said in an oddly slow tone.

"Oobleck, we can talk about this." Ozpin said as he slowly backed away from his co-worker. One second Oobleck was sitting in his chair, the next and he was in front of Ozpin and holding him by the collar of his jacket.

"You know too much. Now you must become one of us." Ozpin tried to struggle but Oobleck was too strong. His grip was like iron. "Now join us." Oobleck opened his mouth and brown sludge began to pool in it.

"NO!" Oobleck then vomited the sludge at Ozpin.

* * *

 **And that is a wrap. Stay frosty my friends.**

 **P.S.**

 **The poll has ended and there will not be a prologue story. Instead, there will be...flashbacks...how original. Truly the work of a genius!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Seven: A Trip Through the Past**

* * *

Crocea watched his partner sleep on his bed from the corner that Jaune had decided to place him. It wasn't that bad of a corner actually, it could certainly use a duster but other than that, the corner was quite nice. Regardless of how nice the corner felt, it didn't stave off the boredom that he felt at night when his partner was sleeping. He was meant to be used for battle after all, not sitting around doing nothing but collecting dust.

It was quite sad whenever he spotted an old weapon be placed up on a rack or put in a museum because they would sit there for the rest of their lives and do nothing but watch the faces of people walk by in order to gawk at them before swiftly walking away and forgetting that weapon even existed. It maddened many weapons. And these were the lucky ones.

The unlucky ones would be those that were left at a battlefield to rust and break apart. Crocea was horrified whenever he and Acier would go on a walk through an old battlefield because he would hear the cried of other weapons scream out in pain as they slowly rusted. This process could take many years before the weapon would finally die.

So many of Crocea's friends from the war had either of these happen to them as the previous owners died and their children would have the weapons put away due to upgrading to the next gun weapon mixes that were used these days. All of them were forgotten. Discarded…Destroyed.

Crocea could even remember the time when Acier had given him to his son, Or. Strangely enough, it was just like how he was given to Jaune.

* * *

 _Acier sat by his son Or on his bed. Or had already packed his bags for the combat academy that he was going to be sent to. The young blonde looked quite nervous and kept rubbing his left wrist which Crocea knew by now was just what the lad did when he was nervous. Acier smiled at his son, his blonde hair was now quite long and covered his right eye. The other eye twinkled with mirth at his son._

" _So Or, are you excited for tomorrow?" Or looked at his father and gave a wry smile._

" _Y-yeah. I'm pre-prepared for going to the academy! I won't let you down, dad." Or stated much to the humor of his father and Crocea. As Or said this, Acier pulled Crocea from his hip and placed the blade on his lap._

" _So, I heard that you are to make a weapon in your combat school this year." Acier stated which cause Or to gain a downtrodden look. The reason for this was because the lad was unable to make any type of craft without it breaking on him. Acier assumed that this was an inherited trait from himself and left it at that._

 _Or just sighed before replying. "But dad, you know that I can't make a weapon to save my life." The lad complained. Acier playfully ruffled his son's hair in response._

" _I know that, which is why I have a present for you." Or looked his father in the eyes in curiosity._

" _What present?" Or asked. Acier gave his son a wide smile before he set Crocea on the lad's lap. Or looked down at the sword with both shock and reverence clearly on his face. He slowly picked Crocea up from his lap and unsheathed the blade before holding it aloft in from of himself. "Y-your sword," Or said before looking at his father, "you're giving me your sword?"_

 _Acier nodded. "Yes son, my sword Crocea Mors has served me for many years. It has been my partner since the day I got it." This was the first time Crocea had ever heard his owner calm him partner…It was quite nice. Maybe he would stick with that for this lad._

" _But you've had this sword, like, forever. Why are you giving it to me now?" The lad asked in disbelief. Acier put his hand on Or's shoulders in a comforting manner._

" _It's because I believe that you are ready to take on this world with your best foot held forward and I want to give you as much help as I can before sending you out into this world." Acier then pulled his son into a one armed hug before he whispered, "And I know that you couldn't make a weapon even if you tried." Acier let Or go while Or playfully punched his father._

" _That's cruel, dad."_

" _Well," Acier rolled his eyes at his son, "it's true. Then again, I couldn't make a weapon even if I tried."_

" _Then how did you get Crocea in the first place?" The lad asked. Acier scratched his nose and coughed._

" _That is a long story that I'll tell you when you're older."_

 _The lad huffed in disappointment before crossing his arms. "You always say that, dad, but you never tell me that. When will you tell me?"_

" _Like I said, older." The lad pouted which caused both Acier and Crocea to laugh._

 _ **A Few Hours Later**_

 _The lad and Acier stood before a armored bus that other students were marching onto after saying goodbye to their parents. The father and son duo looked at each other. "I guess this is goodbye…" Acier started. He was cut off as Or rushed up and crushed his father into a hug._

" _Bye, dad." Acier looked down at his son before returning the hug._

" _Your mother would have been proud of you." The two separated and stared at one another in the eyes._

" _You really mean that?" The lad asked._

" _Yes." Acier responded sincerely. Or nodded before holding out his hand to his father who in turn slapped it. "Now go kick ass. I'll see you during your break." The lad nodded and ran off leaving Acier behind. When he got onto the bus he saw that there were many students having already taken their seats. He looked around and saw an empty seat on the bus. When he sat down, he looked out the window to see his father waving to which he waved back. A minute later and the bus began to drive off._

 _The lad then looked about the bus to see that there were many students already having conversations with one another which made him feel left out. That was, until a kid in a blue tracksuit with matching blue glasses and black hair sidled up to him. "Hey there!" The kid said with a slightly squeaky voice._

" _Hey," The lad replied._

" _So this your first time coming to a combat academy as well?" The kid asked. The lad nodded in response. "Cool, now I won't be alone in this place. So what's your name?"_

" _Or Arc." The kid held his hand out to the lad who with some hesitation, eventually accepted the gesture and shook it in response._

" _Ray Cerulean. Wanna be friends?" Or nodded with a smile. Ray put his arm over the lad's shoulder and gave him a grin. "I think that this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship._

 _ **A few Years Later**_

 _Crocea and Or had bee together for over eight years. In all of that time, Crocea had seen his partner triumph and fail yet each failure was never something that brought Or down for long. Or had even managed to with some difficulty, to make two other friends, Dawn Vermillion, and Silver Graymen._

 _Ray and Or had managed to stay together throughout these eight years without being separated once which mainly had to do with them becoming partners._

 _It was at that time that these two friends were walking the streets of a less advanced version of Vale as the city had only just begun the large scale development that it was know for these days. As the two walked, they headed towards a bakery in order to pick up the food that both of them loved, cinnamon rolls. It also helped that Or was attracted to the lass who worked there by the name of Beatrice._

 _The duo walked into the building together which caused the door bell to ring. They were not the only ones in this establishment as there was a line that was made from the from counter to the door which unfortunately was where the two teens were located._

" _So come on Or, when are you going to ask that girl out?" Ray asked while subtly pointing to Beatrice who was at the front counter. The lass had long brown hair that reached down past her shoulders while her apron contained a growing figure. Or looked at Ray and sighed._

" _But what if she doesn't like me. I mean, look at her, she probably gets asked out all the time. I'm just a nobody…" Or said depressingly. Ray grabbed Or's shoulders and gave them a little shake._

" _Yeah, you're just a nobody that fights monsters and protects the kingdoms of Remnant for a living. Totally boring." Ray responded with the roll of his eyes. "Now suck it up and go talk to her or else I'll eat your cinnamon roll. Then you would have to go back up to the counter and get another one which I would then eat and you would have to go back up to the counter again for another one. Do you get it now?" Ray asked with a mischievous grin._

" _But that would make you extremely fat."_

" _And that is a risk that I'm willing to take." As Ray said this, the person in front of them left the line after he was served a doughnut and both Ray and walked up to the counter together. Ray gave a cheeky grin to Or while Or looked like her was walking to his execution._

 _Beatrice looked at Or with her blue eyes into his and nervously smiled. "Hello, what would you like to order?" The lass asked. Or took a deep breath before responding._

" _You…"_

 _ **Many Years Later**_

 _Or stood next to Ray in matching black suits. The duo both were quite uncomfortable in what they were wearing but they dealt with it. Ray, because it was for his best friend and Or because it was his wedding._

 _Or managed to stay quite composed even though if you looked closely enough, you could see him shaking in fear. Or looked out to the crowd and saw his father giving him a thumbs up and then the music began. Or drew his attention to the center isle where his wife to be, Beatrice, was wearing a simple white dress and was walking arm in arm with her father. Or calmed down when he saw her and just stared at the beautiful woman he was about to marry._

 _She eventually made it up to where he was and he father gave her hand to his which Or took gladly. That was when the minister began his speech which Or began to drown out as he was instead looking at the woman who after all these years, was about to become his wife. The next part though, he paid attention to._

" _So, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The minister asked._

" _I do." Or said without and hesitation or doubt. The minister then turned to Beatrice._

" _And do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"_

" _I do." Beatrice said. With that said, the minister presented the rings to the two which they both put on each others hand._

" _Then I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride." With that, both man and wife leaned in and gave each other a passionate kiss while around them the audience cheered. The gray haired minister smiled at the young couple and then readjusted his sunglasses._

 _ **Year Later**_

 _Both Ray and Or were sneaking around a warehouse together. Both were at the moment on a mission together while their two other teammates were entering the warehouse at the other side. This warehouse was one that had recently been discovered to house the criminal element which Or's team was assigned to take care of. While it had been years since the team had attended their combat schools, they still managed to stick together all of this time and do missions together which didn't always happen._

 _Ray and Or saw two guards and looked at one another. Ray detached from his arms, two large blades that looked like they belonged on buzzsaws and tossed them at the guards. Two dead bodies later and the duo walked past the guards while Ray pulled his saw from out of their skulls. They managed to kill a few more guards on their way through the warehouse before reaching the mission objective: a massive stockpile of boxes containing dust and explosives._

 _Ray and Or saw that Dawn and Silver had made it to the area with them and the four nodded to one another before walking over to meet up._

" _So, now that we found the dust and weapons, what do we do now?" Dawn asked._

" _We call it in." Silver stated dully._

" _Both of you are wrong," An new voice stated which grabbed the attention of the four. They turned to look up on one of the piles of crates to see a young teen in a white coat with a bowler hat grinning at them. In one hand was a can while in another was what looked like a detonator, "you die!" With that, he pressed the detonator and jumped away from the area while the team looked at one another and realized that this was a set up and they were going to die. Ray quickly on instinct rushed at and tackled Or to the ground while the dust and weapons pile in front of them exploded._

 _The initial blast lowered everyone's aura but Or's down to just about half while the firestorm that ensued burned away the rest. Or looked at his partner in the eye as he grinned. "I'll be waiting…in the afterlife to have a…drink…" With that his partner began to burn up while Or felt the left side of his face, and his hand begin to burn. He screamed in both anguish and pain before darkness consumed him._

* * *

 _Or woke up in a white room with small amounts of pain going throughout his body. His left side of his face felt itchy so he tried to raise his hand to scratch it only, he didn't feel anything. His eyes widened and he looked at his left hand to see to his horror that it was missing and all that was left was a stump. His heartbeat skyrocketed which cause the machines in his room to go off._

 _Then memory of the previous day hit Or like a train as he could see Ray grinning at him before burning up. That memory just kept replaying in his mind over and over even as the nursing staff came in to sedate him. Eventually once again, darkness took him._

* * *

 _When he woke up once more, he looked over at his left hand to see if it was still there. Unfortunately it wasn't. He felt a grip on his right hand and looked over to see his heavily pregnant wife holding his right hand tightly as if afraid that if she let go, she would lose him. He heard a cough at the end of the room and looked to see his father Acier sitting in a chair._

" _Hello son. You had me worried there."_

" _What happened to the others?"_

 _Acier sighed, "They all died. I'm sorry."_

" _Who did it?"_

" _Some new hotshot criminal that goes by the name Roman Torchwick. We don't know that much about him besides the fact that he was involved in dust and arms robberies and the…murder of two Huntsmen and a Huntress. But that shouldn't stop you. I promise, if we look hard enough then we will find this man and bring him to justice. We can avenge your team!" Acier had a look of determination on his face as he said this. Sadly, this is not what Or had in mind._

" _I'm done." Or replied._

" _What?" Acier asked in disbelief._

" _I am done. I'm not going to be a Huntsman anymore."_

" _B-but it's your dream."_

" _Take it and go."_

" _What?"_

" _Take your stupid sword, and leave me out of your stupid adventures. I'm not going to go on them anymore." Or said quietly but the tone of his voice made it seem as if he was shouting to the heavens._

" _Son, you're making a mistake. You're not thinking straight and you need some time to grieve. I understand this and I think you need to calm down."_

" _I understand everything. I have never thought of anything so clearly in my life. Now get out and take your stupid sword with you." Acier looked completely dejected and broken as he grabbed Crocea from the corner that he was stood up on and walked out of the hospital room. He looked back once but all he saw was his son glaring at him. This cowed Acier enough that he left without a fight leaving the son with his wife._

* * *

Crocea was brought out of these dark memories when he heard Jaune wake up and stretch. "Morning Crocea." Jaune said while cracking his neck. The lad was really putting his time in to training with his team and the results showed in his classes. His other teammates were quite supportive in this endeavor which Crocea appreciated immensely. Right now though, the three teens were still sleeping in their beds without a care in the world unlike Jaune who was awake.

"Morning laddie. Ready for another day of kicking ass?" Crocea asked excitedly.

"Yeah." Jaune replied in his early morning personality.

Jaune Arc while unskilled and at time what could be consider quite the buffoon and oblivious blonde was Crocea's partner, and he wouldn't change that for the world…

* * *

 **And that is a wrap. Sorry about being late on this but I had to deal with my mom's funeral which took my time up. Still, I released this chapter as quick as I could for you because it was my birthday yesterday and I wanted to give you guys something for all the attention you have given this story. My thanks to you, Stay frost my friends.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Eight: Guerilla Conflict**

* * *

Jaune found himself in quite a pickle; certainly his training had been going well for the past few weeks as he had found out in combat class due to him actually winning a few rounds. It did not mean that he would ever be able to take on the likes of Yang in a straight fight as she would be able to totally dominate him and not even being friend with her younger sister would stop the older girl from giving him a thrashing. But that wasn't where his pickle was coming from.

No, it was the giant hammer about to smash him in the face.

"Duck laddie!" Crocea shouted and Jaune leaned backwards and used Crocea as a makeshift crutch to hold himself off the ground. He figured out after fighting Nora enough times that he couldn't stop Nora's blows with his shield without taking large damaged to his aura.

"CRUSH LITTLE BLONDE BOY!" Magnhild shouted. Jaune rolled away as the hammer came down at his head. Thankfully he moved out of the way in time. Unfortunately he was belly first on the ground. The cracking of twigs alerted Jaune that either Ren or Pyrrha were running at him.

"Ren laddie." That was good. Ren would either have to overextend himself in order to hit him or use his guns. The shifting of metal alerted Jaune to the fact that Ren had just transformed his weapons into guns.

"Oh crap." Jaune said before rolling over so that he was on his back. He then put the shield in front of him where it was immediately pelted by bullets from Ren's guns.

"Pyrrha coming from the left." Crocea stated. Jaune kept the shield in front of his head before rolling to his right. As he did so, Magnhild smashed right next to him.

"That was a close one." Jaune stated. He then looked at Crocea and then at Pyrrha. He immediately made up his mind, "Sorry Crocea." Jaune said.

"Wait! What?!" Crocea shouted. He threw Crocea at Pyrrha direction while Crocea cursed all the way. Jaune didn't bother to look and see if Pyrrha dodged or not because what he did was only meant to be a distraction. The pinging of Ren's bullets stopped and Jaune took it as his chance to brace his shield with both hands as Nora slammed Magnhild into his shield once more.

"Come on Jaune, all you're doing is dodging and blocking." Nora complained. In response, Jaune took that as a chance to kick Nora's legs out from under her. The he got up and turned to Ren's direction to see that he had finished reloading Storm Flower. The pinging rang off his shield once again and Jaune charged with his shield in front of him in order to block the damage.

Some bullets made it past his shield but his aura was high enough that it really didn't matter since he was on a roll and Ren was in his path. Then Ren jumped out of the way but Jaune kept following him. This was their third bout today and Ren was showing signs of tiredness. It would be very soon now before he, never mind, Ren tripped and Jaune took that as his chance to jump at Ren and slam onto him with his shield. Ren gave a gasp of pain before staying on the ground. Now there were only two people left to deal with.

As he thought this, Pyrrha grinned and put her shield onto her back and picked up Crocea in her hand. Now she was dual wielding both Akoúo and Crocea. Pyrrha really wasn't holding back today, was she? Jaune tapped on his shield and shrunk it into it's sheath form. "Ready to do this Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune nodded and they ran at each other. "I hope that the lass kicks your ass for throwing me!" Crocea shouted.

"I'm sorry Crocea but I needed to buy time." Jaune replied.

"This is going to be hilarious to watch, Waste-of-Skin! I hope my girl kicks your ass!" Akoúo shouted.

"Wait, we can agree on something?" Crocea asked.

"Don't count on it old man. This is probably a one time thing." Akoúo replied in his usual cocky tone.

"Don't call me old you shit." Crocea said angrily. By now Jaune was used to seeing the two blades fight one another. At times it was quite a spectacle to watch but right now, when both of them were being wielded by a girl who could kick his ass, they were terrifying especially since he only had a shield as a weapon.

Jaune thought of one thing to do in this situation. He threw his sheath at Pyrrha while pressing the button to extend it into a shield in the process. What happened next would be something that he would probably remember for a long time as his single greatest moment.

The shield extended between Pyrrha's arms and knocked the two swords out of her hands. Then Jaune drop kicked her in the chest as she dealt with the momentary distraction of both of her weapons leaving her hands. When Jaune got back up, he noticed how Pyrrha was slowly pushing herself off the ground.

"Yeah! I did it Pyrrha! In your face terrible luck!" Jaune cheered. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see a smirking Nora hefting Magnhild. "Oh crap, my terrible luck…" Nora then smashed Magnhild into his chest.

"MAGNHILD SMASH!" Jaune heard as he was launched into a tree. Yeah, now he was done. Pyrrha picked herself up and grabbed Akoúo and sheathed it. Then she grabbed Crocea and sheathed him into his sheath before walking over to Jaune and setting Crocea in his lap.

Pyrrha sat down next to Jaune. "You've been really improving these past few weeks, Jaune. It's amazing how fast you are picking all these skills up." Pyrrha stated with pride in her partner, and possibly something else.

"Yeah, but it's not good enough. Everyone in the school could easily still beat me while I need to put my all into just trying to get a hit on someone. It frustrates me that all of you get stronger and I am still trying my hardest to close this…gap. Yet it is so frustrating to do so." Jaune said as he leaned his head back against the tree. In the distance, Nora picked Ren up off of the ground and began dragging him over to the others.

Pyrrha felt herself slightly sadden at Jaune's mood but smiled anyway. "Jaune, you'll get there eventually. I can feel it. You just need to keep working at becoming stronger and all of us will be there for you when you need us. After all, we're your team and you are our leader." Pyrrha said. Jaune perked up at his partner's pep talk. Pyrrha always knew just what to say in order to cheer him up.

"Thank you Pyrrha. You're a great partner and an even better friend." Jaune said. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you. So, thanks."

Pyrrha felt her face begin to heat up and so she turned away from Jaune and looked at Nora carrying Ren. The excitable girl gave Pyrrha a knowing look before setting Ren down next to her. The boy was still worn out from the training. Though he had been lasting longer and longer over these past few weeks.

Jaune took notice that Ren while a skilled fighter, had little to no endurance. Thankfully that was getting fixed. Now if only he could fix his other problems here at Beacon. First there was Cardin who kept on bullying him. He was grateful that Cardin had not figured out that he faked his transcripts here otherwise he had no idea about what would happen. The other problem was how Weiss still hated him and he had not found a way to fix this.

He wanted her to like him and possibly even love him, but she just pushed him away every time he tried. It was like he was just an insect on the floor that she could just step on which while he was happy that she noticed him, he was still upset.

Though Crocea had been trying to help him with this. Mostly by telling him to find other fish in the sea. He would show Crocea though; he would totally get an amazing girl like Weiss or someone even better. He just needed to keep trying.

"So what do you guys think we should do now?" Jaune asked as he gazed at the sky.

"Is rest an option?" Ren meekly asked from the ground.

"You don't want rest, Renny! We just need to get your blood flowing like playing dodgeball while the balls are on fire, or partying, or partying with dodgeballs that are on fire!" Nora answered excitedly.

"Please no…" Ren begged.

"I THINK WE SHOULD BLOW THINGS UP WITH THINGS THAT GO BOOM! HAHAHAHA!" Magnhild stated. Jaune found this answer to be weird but quite suitable for the massive hammer which by now was a usual for his quirky team.

"How about we,"

"Go for a walk,"

"And kill some Grimm." StormFlower recommended. Jaune thought that this idea was insane. All of them were tired from the training, and them going against Grimm in a state like this would just be suicide.

"Maybe we could all go for a nice dinner. How about some pizza?" Pyrrha asked. Everyone looked at each other as they mulled this option.

"Delivery or restaurant?" Ren asked. Jaune could tell that the boy wanted to just lie down and so he did not wish to do anymore physical activity.

"Would delivery be agreeable?" Pyrrha asked. Everyone looked at each other and nodded. "Great, I'll just call them and we can walk back to Beacon and meet the delivery guy there." With that, the group stood up, well more like Nora, Jaune, and Pyrrha stood up, Ren had to be carried over Nora's back. As they did this, Pyrrha dialed the pizza place and ordered a few pizzas as they took Nora's bottomless stomach into account.

Eventually the group made it back to Beacon with plenty of time to spare as the pizza man showed up. Jaune and Pyrrha forked over the lien to pay for the pizza which equaled over fifty lien. This emptied Jaune's wallet while Pyrrha managed to stay slightly afloat with twenty lien left.

"Hey Nora," Jaune started.

"What is it?" Nora asked. Jaune noticed how every once in a while Nora would glance at Ren's butt before looking away. He guessed those two were definitely together from that alone.

"How much do you eat exactly?" Jaune asked. Nora glanced at the boxes of pizza that Pyrrha carried before pointing to half of the stack.

"I'll take about half. Maybe even more." Nora replied. Jaune looked the girl up and down. Where the hell did she put all of that food? She must have a stomach of the gods in order to handle that amount of food…as well as ass of the gods to get rid of it.

"Wow Nora, your family must have a hell of a time trying to feed you." Pyrrha remarked while they entered the dorms.

"Renny and I don't have parents. We're orphans." Nora stated which caused Pyrrha to become completely embarrassed at how inconsiderate she had just been to her two friends.

"I am so sorry. If I had known…" Pyrrha blustered out.

"Don't worry Pyrrha. It's fine. We haven't ever thought about having parents since we have each other. Isn't that right, Renny?" Nora shook Ren which elicited a slight groan from the boy. "See, he's fine with that."

Jaune looked at his teammate and patted her on the shoulder. "You know, if you ever want to talk, then Pyrrha and I are there for you." Nora smiled and nodded.

"Thanks but we're fine. Now let's go eat!" Nora shouted. She then quickened her pace.

"JAUNE BOY!" Magnhild said, "THANK YOU FOR LOOKING OUT FOR LITTLE GIRL!" The hammer said before Nora turned a corner and disappeared down the corridor. At least the hammer was being friendly. Now if only Akoúo could be nice like that. Why did that sword, spear, gun, whatever hate him anyway?

When Jaune and Pyrrha made it to their dorm room, they saw that Nora and Ren were already inside sitting down. So Pyrrha set the pizza down onto her bed and took half of the boxes off and handed them to Nora who took them gladly and began to devour the pizzas.

Jaune and Pyrrha took slices of pizza and began to eat while Ren lay down in his bed unable to move. "Hey Renny, why aren't you eating?" Nora asked.

"Too tired, can't move." Ren responded. Nora pulled a slice of pizza out from the box and walked over to Ren's bed before holding the pizza above his mouth.

"Open wide for the chu-chu, Renny." Nora said much to Ren's embarrassment as she began to feed him. This made Jaune and Pyrrha laugh at Ren's plight along with all the other weapons in the room.

"That lad is totally whipped. Those two make a good couple together." Crocea remarked which caused both StormFlower and Magnhild to laugh. "What?" Crocea asked confused at his friends' actions.

"LITTLE GIRL AND GREEN BOY ARE NOT PLOWING!" Magnhild replied.

"I wasn't talking about farming." Crocea said in confusion.

"Ren and,"

"Nora are not,"

"Dating even though both of them,"

"Have showed interest in one another. We,"

"Wish that Ren would finally gain the,"

"Courage to confess his feelings." StormFlower replied. When Jaune heard this he turned his attention back to the two teens and looked at them in confusion. How is it that those two acted like a perfect couple together yet they weren't dating?

"Well, that is certainly enlightening. I will keep that in mind. Won't you laddie?" Crocea asked. Jaune grunted out an affirmation as he ate his pizza. "At least you are paying attention." Jaune laughed at this.

"So Jaune, do you want to go down to Vale tomorrow?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune nodded and swallowed his pizza.

"That would be great Pyrrha." Jaune looked at Nora and Ren. "Would you guys be up for that?" He asked the two. Behind him, Pyrrha began to furiously shake her head no which caught Nora and Ren's attention.

"Sorry Jaune, Renny and I are going to be hanging out tomorrow. Maybe next time." Jaune looked away and towards Pyrrha. Behind him Nora and Ren gave the Spartan a thumbs up before going back to eating.

"Then I guess it's a date Pyrrha." Jaune replied. Pyrrha looked elated at the answer.

"Great, Jaune." Pyrrha said with a slight blush. As this happened, Jaune began to yawn. This action made Jaune realize just how tired he actually was after today. First they had class, then they had combat training, and after that was the extra training that Jaune received. Now he just wanted to rest and due to that, he didn't even bother taking his clothes off. He just laid down in his bed and began to close his eyes.

"Well, I am going to follow Ren's example and go to sleep. See you guys zzzzzz…" Jaune began snoring before he could even finish his sentence. Pyrrha giggled at Jaune before walking over to his bed and removing Crocea from his side. She then put the sword into the corner where she then removed her sword and shield and set them next to Crocea.

"So Pyrrha, what are you going to be doing with Jaune tomorrow? I hope it's something fun like going to the arcade, beating up Grimm, blowing up buildings," Nora would have kept going until Pyrrha interrupted her.

"I will think of something. Maybe not as extreme as your idea though." Pyrrha responded.

"Will you go on more dates though and then finally confess your feelings as you go skydiving?" Pyrrha shook her head and chuckled at her friend.

"I don't think so Nora. But I think I may need some help with places to go. Could you please help me?" Pyrrha asked. Nora grinned and somehow pulled a note pad out from…somewhere. Then she ran over to Pyrrha.

"Well, here are all the places that are really cool in Vale…"

* * *

Jaune found himself in a black void for some unexplained reason. "Where am I?" Jaune asked aloud. His voice echoes across the void. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Once again his voice resounding around him was the only answer that he received.

Jaune began to walk around the area. It was strange how he began to lose his bearings after a few seconds of walking around and it didn't help that this blackness was so crushing. "This dream really sucks." Jaune whined out.

As if displeased with Jaune's opinion, a loud metallic roaring echoed out from the darkness which caused Jaune to freeze where he stood. "I-is someone there? If you want to fight me then you should know that I am a great warrior that has defeated many opponents." The roaring resounded once more.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it as well." Jaune said in depression. A sound like blades scratching against one another drew near from behind him. Jaune turned around and saw in the distance a figure in white that had what looked like spikes coming off of its shoulders. Either way, the creature was extremely intimidating to Jaune.

"Could you tell me if you're friendly because you look really scary and awesome from this distance?" Jaune asked. The figure took a step near Jaune and the metallic scratching of blade sounded out once more until they stopped. Jaune could see from this distance that the figure looked like a person covered in some type of armor. He couldn't tell the details of the armor as a white light emitted from it.

The figure grabbed something from its shoulders and a sound like metal breaking emitted from the figure then it threw something at Jaune which stabbed itself into the ground at his feet. There was a white glow surrounding the object before that glow slowly dimmed and Jaune could see that the object in question was a broken blade.

"Okay, this is one of the weirder dreams that I have had. Can I please wake up now?" Jaune couldn't tell if he disappointed the figure but either way, the figure slowly disappeared from sight. "Hey, come back!" Jaune ran after the figure and as he did so, the black abyss that surrounded him became brighter until it eventually became too blinding for Jaune to handle…

* * *

Jaune woke up and looked around the dorm to see that everyone was still asleep. "Weird dream. Maybe I shouldn't have pizza before I go to sleep." Jaune remarked to himself.

"Morning laddie. You're up considerably early today. Why's that?" Crocea asked. Jaune scratched his head and slowly pushed himself out of bed.

"I had a strange dream. What time is it, Crocea?" Jaune asked as he stood from his bed and stretched.

"Oh, about five thirty. Do you wish to go for a run, lad?" Jaune nodded and took note that his clothes were still on him. He smirked to himself, he was exhausted last night and it showed through his bed wear. He then undid the straps that held his chestplate up and let it fall to the ground.

"Yeah, I'm going to run. I'll do it by myself today if that's fine with you." Jaune replied.

"That's perfectly understandable, lad. Sometimes a person needs silence in their lives so that they may listen to the world around them." Jaune was pleasantly surprised by what Crocea had to say.

"That was very…philosophical for you." Jaune said.

"Maybe. I used to pal around with a staff that spewed lines like that out all the time. Good guy even if he did meet his end in a fire." Crocea remarked. Jaune tuned his partner out and exited the dorm. Then he began to run out of the hallway and eventually out of the building.

The courtyard of Beacon was dark as the sun hadn't risen yet. At least this time in the morning was when Jaune could think to himself. Thankfully he hadn't brought Crocea along as while the sword was at times insightful, he also didn't know when to shut up. So Jaune began his early run around Beacon.

* * *

Jaune eventually stopped running after two laps around the school. The run had made him sweat but it didn't run him ragged like Crocea's training regimen. Soon he made it to the statue of the courtyard and sat down by it. He looked at the Beowolf portion of the statue. It really did look realistic.

At least today would be quite interesting. First it would be class, and then it would be hanging out in Vale with Pyrrha. He hoped that his partner had something fun in mind.

"Hello Jauney boy. It's a pleasant surprise to see you out here." A very familiar voice said from behind him. Jaune's eyes widened as he slowly turned to see Cardin grinning.

"What do you want, Cardin?" Jaune asked as he slowly began to stand up in order to leave. As he did this, he felt someone grab him by the shoulder and push him back into a sitting position. Jaune turned to see that Russel Thrush was the person holding him down. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Cardin's two other teammates were walking out from behind the statue.

This was an ambush.

"Oh don't get up for me Jauney boy. We just wanted to visit you since we heard down the grapevine that you like to get up early." One of Cardin's teammates walked in front of Jaune with a blowtorch in hand and a grin of his face. This was beginning to terrify him. What did they want with him? "Now my teammates and I have been thinking about your best interests for the past few weeks and we wanted to see how you were doing."

Cardin then walked up to Jaune before kneeling in front of him. "And we have heard all these troubling rumors about how you can talk to weapons. All of us are concerned about how you are clearly hearing things and so we have decided to take it upon ourselves in order to fix this issue." Cardin smirked and pulled out a dagger which he held in front of Jaune. "Now the first step is to admit your problem. Say hello to the dagger for me."

Jaune knew he couldn't fight against these odds against him and just decided to follow Cardin's order. "Hello. Are you there?" Jaune asked the dagger.

"Help me. These people plan to hurt me." The dagger said in resigned voice. Jaune struggled when he heard this but by now, the rest of Cardin's cronies had decided to help Russel hold him down. The combined efforts of these three teens against him prevented him from escaping.

"I wonder if you heard the dagger speak. Well, nevermind. I think we need to move to the next step of rehabilitation." The teammate holding the blowtorch tossed it to Cardin.

"Please help me. I don't want to die." The dagger pleaded. Jaune wished to help it so badly but he couldn't. What was Cardin going to do?! The hiss of the blowtorch frightened Jaune as Cardin adjusted the flame so that it was a glowing blue flame. "I don't like this!"

"Now let's fix that issue that you have." Cardin stated.

"Cardin, please don't do this." Jaune begged. Cardin's grin became more malicious as he slowly moved the dagger into the flame.

"No, please stop this! Stop it! STOP IT!" The dagger shouted as it was left in the superheated flame. Jaune couldn't put his hands over his ears and was forced to listen as the dagger screamed out in pain. Anguish covered Jaune's face as he absorbed all the pain and noise that the dagger was making.

"CARDIN STOP!" Jaune shouted. This made Cardin chuckle the dagger began to turn into slag while droplets of the superheated metal began to fall before Jaune's feet.

"Pain. So _much_ pain. _This…hurts…so…much._ " The dagger's voice finally faded away as Cardin dropped the handle at Jaune's feet. Jaune looked at the dagger that was at his feet in absolute horror. This was the first time that he had seen or heard someone die. And he was absolutely useless. He couldn't do anything. He wasn't a hero, he couldn't even save a little dagger from being melted in front of him.

"Now wasn't that enlightening? I think we made some real progress today. We'll have to continue this another day." Cardin stood up from the ground and his teammates followed after him leaving Jaune alone in the courtyard. Slowly Jaune crawled forward towards the handle and picked it up.

He couldn't save anyone. Not even a regular dagger. Slowly Jaune's fist began to tighten on the handle until his knuckles turned white. Cardin was going to pay for this. He was going to suffer for what he did and Jaune would make sure of it.

He slowly stood up from the ground and began to march back to the dorms. His mood was dark, very dark and he just wanted to take a shower after all of this. He stuck the dagger into his pocket and he knew that he would keep it with him in order to remember that he wasn't able to save everyone.

* * *

Pyrrha woke up in a pleasant mood as she and Nora had made out a plan for her and Jaune's not-date. What she didn't expect to see was Jaune in a sour mood as he put his uniform on. "Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked as she stretched he arms and yawned. Jaune seemed lost in thought as she asked this. "Jaune, are you there?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune was brought out of his reverie and turned to look at Pyrrha.

"Hey, Pyrrha. What did you want?" Jaune asked in a tone that contained barely hidden anger.

"I was asking if you were alright? You seemed a little down." Pyrrha replied. Jaune smiled at Pyrrha which she could tell was easily fake.

"A little down?" Jaune asked if shocked. "What are you talking about, Pyrrha? I am doing completely fine. So did you have a plan for our time out tonight?" Jaune asked in order which Pyrrha could tell was an act in order to dodge the question. She decided to humor her partner regardless.

"Well we are going to first go to the arcades, then we'll take a walk around town," Pyrrha began.

"Where around town?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha smiled at this as she enjoyed surprising Jaune.

"That's a secret. You'll find out when we get there. And finally we'll have some dinner. Nora pointed out a really nice noodle stand that we could go to for dinner." Pyrrha replied. This would definitely be a great night and maybe she might even gain the courage to confess her feelings for Jaune, even if the boy was completely oblivious and was still infatuated with _Weiss_.

"Sounds great, Pyrrha." Jaune said as he began to trail off into thought. Pyrrha was really becoming worried for her partner. He just did not seem like himself today.

"Jaune, if there is anything wrong, just know that you can always talk to me." Pyrrha said. Jaune gave Pyrrha a genuine smile this time which Pyrrha returned in kind.

"Thanks Pyrrha." Jaune said.

* * *

Jaune walked towards Professor Port's class in a foul mood. He did his best to hide it from his teammates but he guessed that Pyrrha figured it out pretty quickly. He felt slightly more protective of Crocea today, especially whenever Cardin came into sight. He unknowingly kept gripping Crocea's hilt tighter and tighter.

"Hey laddie, if you are happy to see me, then please don't squeeze my hilt like that." Crocea complained. Jaune looked down at Crocea and released his grip.

"Sorry Crocea." Jaune said in shock at what he was doing.

"Laddie, what is up with you today? You are acting scared of everything, especially of the big prick over there. So what's wrong?" Crocea asked with immense concern.

Jaune tried to find his words in order to explain. He took a breath before replying, "Cardin ambushed me on my run this morning." He whispered out so as to not let Pyrrha hear him.

"That bastard! What did he do?!" Crocea asked.

"His whole team was waiting for me by the statue. Then they held me down and decided to mess with me by attacking me through my Semblance."

"What. Did. They. Do?"

"They held me down and melted a dagger in front of my face. I could hear his screaming as he died! It's still stuck in my head." Jaune replied with sadness. "I couldn't do anything to stop it. I was just useless." He finished with resignation in his voice.

"Laddie. We'll figure out a way to get that bastard back. What I want you to know is that none of it is your fault. You were the victim in all of this and while that dagger may have died, it is life and not everything is nice in the world. You can't save everyone." Crocea said in an effort to console his partner.

"Crocea, how can I be a hero if I can't save everyone?" Jaune asked. This made Crocea remember all the people that Or and Acier had never been able to save. Even though he couldn't do anything physical by himself, he still felt each of those failure weigh upon himself.

"Jaune…" The boy in question looked at his sword in shock. Crocea never really used his name, he only called him lad. "I have lived a very long life and I have seen both great and absolutely horrific moments. The worst things I have seen during this lifetime is the look of those that were about to die because my partner and I were unable to save them. Trust me, Jaune; I know the taste of failure."

Crocea sighed at this. "Here's a lesson I wish for you to learn so that you don't beat yourself up over it later, you can't save everyone. There will be the day where you will do everything you can to save someone and yet you will not be able to reach them in time."

Jaune thought about this. How could life be so bleak? How could anyone be a hero in this world? "Then what is the point to any of this Crocea?" Jaune asked.

"The point to this little speech is that while you will never be able to save everyone, you sure try your damndest to help as many people as you can. Don't let regret consume you for that is what destroys even the strongest hero." Crocea remained silent after this and Jaune just let the information stew about his head.

He barely listened to Port as he spoke about past adventures, instead a smouldering anger burned within him. Bartholomew's class was ignored completely and finally, Goodwitch's class began. Now he was ready to hurt something. To channel this anger into something that he could hit.

This eventually led up to Jaune being paired off against Blake. Jaune had seen Blake in action and he knew that this girl had both more skill and speed than he did. When both teens walked up to the stage, Jaune took out both sword and shield and stared at Blake in her golden eyes.

Blake on the other hand was studying Jaune and how he looked much more aggressive than usual. In most of Jaune's battles, the boy would always be much more submissive and hesitant, now though when Goodwitch started the match, Jaune charge with reckless abandon. Blake let Jaune swing at her before she jumped back and let a clone take the hit for her.

She then rushed forward and swung with her sword at Jaune whose shield was not being gripped tightly. Due to this, the shield ripped out of Jaune's hand and to the corner of the stage. Jaune ignored the loss of his shield and began slashing at Blake quite wildly. Each strike Jaune made was either parried or dodged by Blake until finally Jaune left and opening with his shield arm which she swung at. Jaune noticed this and held his hand up in a futile effort to stop Blake's attack.

Blake could see that this would end with her victory. What she did not expect was the sound of her blade screeching against what sounded like metal attached to Jaune's hand. Either way, Jaune's arm was knocked away and Blake began to furiously strike at Jaune while dodging each swing that he made.

In her personal opinion, Jaune was very off of his game today.

* * *

Jaune was just as surprised as Blake when he heard Blake's sword hit his hand and made a screech. It continued to run through his mind as he numbly made attempts at trying to hit Blake but she was too nimble for him to handle. Why couldn't he have gotten Yang to fight against? At least she was much slower than Blake.

"And that is the end of the match as well as the end of class. I'll see you all tomorrow." Glynda called out. Jaune walked over to where his shield had fallen and picked it up, transformed it back into a sheath, and sheathed Crocea.

"You'll be able to beat her one day, lad. You just need some more training and it'll work out for you in the end." Jaune nodded and walked over to his teammates who began to console him in their usual way. The battle felt extremely strange though due to the noise that Blake's sword made when it hit his hand.

"So Jaune, are you ready to go out tonight?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, I think I'm ready. Just let me go to the bathroom and then we can go." Jaune replied. Pyrrha nodded and Jaune broke off from the group and towards the bathroom where he entered. He walked over to the mirror in it and looked at the hand that was hit by Blake's sword.

He peeled off his glove and saw to his curiosity a metal object that looked like a white blade. It appeared stuck to his skin but he grabbed it and slowly peeled it off. There was a slight stinging sensation as he pulled the piece of metal off of his skin and held it before his eyes. How did that get onto his hand? "So what's that, laddie?" Crocea asked. Jaune jumped at the suddenness of his partner's question and dropped the blade into the sink which soon fell down the drain.

Jaune calmed himself down before he bothered replying. "I don't know Crocea, I don't know." Jaune Joined back up with Pyrrha and both went to their dorm in order to drop off their weapons.

"Have fun, laddie!" Crocea shouted from behind Jaune as both he and Pyrrha left the room and closed the door.

* * *

Pyrrha led Jaune through Vale towards the arcade store. They walked inside and were assaulted by the sound of clicks, beeps, and whole host of other noises. "So where should we begin?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha took a moment to decide before pointing towards the skiball in the corner.

Jaune knew he wasn't the best at aiming but he never knew how good Pyrrha was until now. She kept on getting the highest score compared to him and everyone else in the arcade. He had a slightly decent score and was awarded tickets for it.

The next hour, both teens spent a bit of their lien on the random games throughout the building. Jaune for some reason got more tickets than Pyrrha but since there wasn't anything the prize stand could give out that interested him, he just gave the tickets to a random kid. Pyrrha caught up with him after this.

"That was extremely generous of you," Pyrrha remarked.

"I didn't need them. So what is next on our agenda?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha grinned at this.

"Let me show you. It's not a surprise if you know." Pyrrha replied. Jaune smiled in reply. Pyrrha really did know how to cheer him up. Pyrrha with some hesitation took Jaune's hand and pulled him after her.

They traveled all over the city throughout the day, their second stop was to a shooting range where Pyrrha had fun teaching Jaune in how to shoot a rifle. Afterwards was a museum which had recently gotten a new addition which was a Grimm whole section of known Grimm that were accompanied by statues that were very realistic.

* * *

After the museum, Jaune and Pyrrha finally ended up at the noodle stand where they ordered two bowls of noodles which they began to consume. Both remained silent as they ate as while Jaune didn't know what to say, Pyrrha was just so nervous about embarrassing herself. This was the first time she had ever managed to actually hang out with someone since she became a celebrity. It was much nicer to actually be able to walk around with an actual friend who didn't like her just because of her fame.

After a few moments of internally debating, Pyrrha decided to speak. "So did you enjoy today, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah. It was fun." Jaune replied.

"Jaune, could you please tell what is wrong? I know something has been on your mind all of today and it really is worrying me." Pyrrha blurted out. She couldn't help herself since she had seen how off Jaune was today. She hated that Jaune just wouldn't tell her what was wrong and that just nagged her.

Jaune sighed as if expecting this behavior from her. He stopped eating and turned to look at her. "Pyrrha, something happened to me this morning…"

"What was it?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune then told Pyrrha all of what happened to him that morning, of how Cardin and his team had ambushed him, of how they held him down and made him watch as they melted a blade before him and how he was forced to listen to it scream. Pyrrha was absolutely horrified at this revelation and felt massive amounts of anger for Cardin.

"I was just useless. Nothing I did could help and even though Crocea told me that I won't be able to save everyone, I just am not able to let it go." Jaune finished. Pyrrha couldn't see Jaune like this and she knew that she would make Cardin suffer.

"Jaune, none of it was your fault. It was Cardin who did it and I want you to know something," Pyrrha grabbed Jaune by the chin and turned his face towards her. "I believe, I absolutely believe, that you will become a great hero one day. I don't want you to doubt yourself because you are so much better than you think you are." Pyrrha quickly grabbed Jaune into a hug and ignored how she would have been embarrassed in a situation like this if things were different.

She guessed that her pep talk worked as Jaune hugged her back. "Thank you, Pyrrha." Jaune whispered.

Pyrrha realized at this moment that she would do all she could to support Jaune: the boy that treated her like an actual person. And she would make Cardin suffer in every conceivable way that she could think of.

* * *

Nora and Ren were enjoying themselves as they watched some TV together. Ren was happy that he wasn't going to be dragged around Vale by Nora, he loved the girl but at times she could not understand the meaning of cooling down. That was why they were watching some type of action movie that involved evil Grimm from the future being sent back to kill a woman who would have a child in order to take over the world while disguised as humans. It was quite the ridiculous movie.

Now they were at the scene where the Grimm who was disguised as a buff hairy guy walking into the police station. "I'm looking for Silver Cloud." The Grimm asked in a gruff accented voice.

"I'm sorry but visiting hours are over. You'll have to come back later." The huntsman replied. The Grimm moved it's face closer to the huntsman. Nora as she watch became excited at this part.

"I'll see your face again." The Grimm along with Nora said before leaving the building.

"This is the best part, Ren!" Nora stated. A second later and a Bulkhead crashed through the wall of the station which crashed into where the huntsman was sitting.

"Your face is mine." The Grimm said as it walked out of the Bulkhead. Nora cheered the Grimm on as it began to gun down ever huntsman, huntress, and cop in the building.

"You know, that guy is the antagonist, correct?" Ren asked. Nora looked at Ren with a malicious grin on her face.

"I know it is evil, but it's just so awesome! It manages to kill all those people so easily while looking so cool! I want to be as awesome as that." Nora replied. Ren smirked at Nora. She was always so ridiculous which he found endearingly cute. Too bad he would never tell her. He didn't know if she felt the same way and because of that, he didn't want to ruin their friendship.

"Sure." Ren said. Both he and Nora got texts at the same time together. It was from Pyrrha. He read it and found it quite odd as to why Pyrrha wanted to meet both of them after she and Jaune got back and when Jaune went to sleep. "Did you get the same text as well?" Ren asked.

"Yeah. I think that the date, I mean, the night out has either gone really well or really, really bad." Nora remarked. Ren smiled at this.

"No, I think they are fine." Ren said.

* * *

It took thirty minutes for Jaune and Pyrrha to get back to the dorm. Another twenty minutes went by before Jaune headed off to bed leaving the three teammates still awake together in the room. Nora had noticed that Pyrrha looked upset. She hoped that Pyrrha hadn't gotten Jaune's unhappiness as well. It would be even worse if the unhappiness was contagious. Oh no, Ren might survive as he was pretty calm, but herself? She probably couldn't live if she became unhappy all the time.

"Maybe I should make everybody happy but I will need a banana and a monkey…" Nora thought aloud. Both Ren and Pyrrha looked at Nora and then at each other.

"How do you deal with that, Ren?" Pyrrha asked.

"I survive." He replied. "So why did you want to talk to us?" Pyrrha regained her angry look. Pyrrha looked scary when she was angry. Perhaps she could find a way to harness angry Pyrrha in order to turn her into a weapon to take over all of Remnant and then make herself a queen, with a castle, a really big castle.

Nah, she could probably use angry Pyrrha to make a big cake. Then she could get inside naked and surprise Ren. It would be a really tasty surprise. That would be if she didn't eat the cake first. Or the cake could instead be pancakes. Half cake and half pan: truly a gift to the human and Faunus races.

"And that is why we need to find a way to deal with Cardin." Pyrrha finished. Nora heard this and thought of a solution immediately.

"Let's break his legs!" Nora replied. It looked like Pyrrha was actually contemplating this. Nora really hoped Pyrrha wanted to break Cardin's legs. She didn't really know why Pyrrha would want to break Cardin's legs but she was totally up for breaking Cardin's legs.

"I'll think about it. But we would need a solution for how to take care of Cardin permanently. Any suggestions?" Pyrrha asked.

"I might have a way. But I have to ask, which way would you want it taken care of, the physical way, the psychological way, or the morally high way?" Ren asked in a matter of fact tone. Then again, Nora wasn't really surprised. When they got bullied in the orphanage, Ren would always stand up for them and take care of their bullies. Though he was scary when he did this, but Nora knew that Ren would never hurt her.

Yes, he would one day be the king who would serve under her when she became queen.

"We'll start with the morally high way and go off from there." Pyrrha replied. Now that was just boring. Why couldn't they just put some bullets in Cardin's kneecaps? Well, at least they would get to mess with that bully so it didn't really matter about what they did to him. Though his legs should be broken…

* * *

 **And look at that, I'm back. Well, it got pretty dark for this chapter but Remnant is a dark place. I also managed to get over my…personal issues by writing another fic and now I have returned back to this one with a vengeance. I hope you all enjoyed. I'll be taking a week off after Saturday so yeah, fun.**

 **Maybe you'll figure out what has been laid out in this chapter, I hope you have some guesses. See you guys soon, stay frosty my friends.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Nine: Reigns Fall, Everyone Dies**

* * *

Pyrrha felt quite good about herself. She had a good sleep, good breakfast, and now she was having quite a good time with showing up Cardin Winchester in class. It was when Oobleck asked as to why the Faunus had an advantage during the war. Cardin in all of his limited clarity responded that "animals were easier to train than soldiers." Which Pyrrha decided to shoot down with the proper answer.

Cardin needed to learn to be more accepting of others other than himself. With his mentality it would only be a matter of time before that would get him killed when working out in the field. There was only enough abuse a person could take before they would just leave Cardin behind to die.

Pyrrha had given her answer, "I have the answer! It's _night vision_." She said with emphasis as she wished to shove the information at the prick that was Cardin Winchester. "Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." She continued. She noticed how Cardin looked angry and insulted at being showed up which was a perfectly suitable to her.

Pyrrha decided to tune out the rest of what the class was saying as she worked on her plan to make Cardin suffer. Ren and Nora had been very helpful in this matter as Ren would find evidence of Cardin's misdemeanors while Nora would take pictures and videos of whatever Cardin was doing so that they could gain enough evidence to get the boy expelled from the school.

"You can see me after class for additional readings." Oobleck ordered. Now that was uplifting to Pyrrha. Cardin gets punished for his idiocy while everyone else walks away scot free. Thankfully Jaune had Crocea with him to help. Pyrrha knew that in any normal situation, getting help from an outside source was cheating but since Jaune's Semblance allowed him to talk to weapons then technically with Semblances originating from the soul, Jaune wasn't cheating. Just…bending the rules.

So after the class, the group of four walked out and to their other classes. Ren and Nora would meet with Pyrrha after Jaune went to bed in order to discuss any evidence that they had found. At least Jaune was doing slightly better at any rate. The three of them had decided that they would try to accompany Jaune whenever they could so that Cardin didn't pull any stunt on their team leader.

It was an interesting day at any rate. Sadly Cardin decided to make an ass of himself during lunch by bullying the timid second year student who Pyrrha thought was named Velvet. Luckily for them, Nora managed to capture that act on her Scroll which would be quite useful in their case on Cardin.

A few hours passed before it was nighttime and Jaune was asleep in his bed. Crocea was put into a corner like usual and the three of them were whispering about how their plan was going. "I think that with the evidence that we have now we can get Cardin kicked out." Nora whispered. Pyrrha still found it surprising that Nora could even be quiet due to her personality.

Ren shook his head in response. "That won't work. The things that we have caught Cardin doing are only small things. None of it would get him kicked out of the school; the best we could hope for would be a long string of detentions. We need to catch him doing something that would definitely get him kicked out of the school." Ren reasoned with a hint of annoyance.

Pyrrha sighed at this answer. She knew that what they had was small but she didn't expect that it would be so…disappointing. "Then what would you suggest? That we just let Cardin do something that could hurt another student?" Pyrrha asked. The look that Ren gave her told everything. "Are you serious, Ren? I can't condone just letting Cardin hurt another student just so that he could possibly get kicked out of Beacon."

"Pyrrha, you need to understand that while the combat academies accept the best, they also don't wish to let go of any student that could possibly be used to fight back the Grimm. Huntsmen and Huntresses die everyday which means that they need to be replaced quickly to fill the number that's lost."

Pyrrha could understand this reasoning but she still found it to be something belonging to a flawed system. If people like Cardin needed to be used in order to replace the Hunters of the world, then what kind of world was this?

"So what would you recommend?" Pyrrha asked.

"Just keep collecting evidence on Cardin. It all will add up in the end." Ren finished before walking towards his bed. The discussion for him was officially over at this point. Nora and Pyrrha looked at each other and then at their clocks.

"I think that I'll follow after, Renny. Night, Pyrrha." Nora said as she went towards her bed. This left Pyrrha alone and yet she still felt slightly awake. She looked around the room before she eyed Crocea sitting alone, leaned up against the corner. She looked at her teammates who were all asleep and walked over to the blade. She tentatively reached out and picked the sword up.

"Hello?" Pyrrha asked. She felt a little ridiculous talking to a sword since that was more of Jaune's forte. "I feel a little crazy talking to a sword and I guess that is how Jaune sometimes feels when he speaks to a weapon. Still, I hope you have been listening to us talk about our plans because I want you to know that we will do everything we can to stop Cardin. And I'll do everything I can to protect Jaune, I-I mean that we'll do everything we can. Umm, I guess that is all and I really hope that what I have said will alleviate some of the distress that you've been feeling."

Pyrrha set Crocea down and walked away.

* * *

It was a few days that Pyrrha began to notice Cardin and his cronies stalking Jaune. It was unnoticeable since the group was trying their hardest to catch Jaune unaware. Sadly for them, Pyrrha was onto them and had alerted Nora and Ren about it. Right now, Pyrrha was coming out of the bathroom. Ren and Nora took their turn in watching Jaune. What Pyrrha did not expect to see was Cardin and his teammates waiting in front of the door.

"How can I help you?" Pyrrha asked in a straight tone that left no room for anything less than a serious conversation. She could see that the group of four was all slightly tense. Probably getting ready for a beating as she couldn't imagine anything less than that if she had to fight the group. Cardin was the first to step forward with a smirk donned on his face.

"We just want to talk to you, Pyrrha. After all, we're all friends here, aren't we?" Cardin asked as he gestured to his teammates. Pyrrha looked around the hallway they were in so that she could get a layout as to what she would do if she had to fight. Behind Cardin was a metal trashcan which would be handy as a weapon. The hallway had one more trashcan except that it was too far for Pyrrha to hide what her Semblance could do so that can would have to be ignored.

"And what do you wish to talk about, _Cardin_?" She hissed out at the end.

"We just want to talk to you about how you and your team have been doing. Jaune seems pretty shaken up and we have been unable to have a chat privately with him and so we were wondering if you could tell him to meet with us." Cardin asked with a tone of hidden malice.

"Yes, Jaune has been off no thanks to your four. So what is it that you really want I wonder?" Pyrrha asked. She noticed that Cardin's teammate, Dove, was trying to slink behind her. He seemed to be the most edgy at the moment and she could use that. She activated her Semblance slightly to see if there was any metal in the area that she could use. Luckily for her the metal buttons on all of their uniform jackets was able to be magnetized.

"Leave Jauney boy alone. He's a big boy and I don't think that he would appreciate you and the others coddling him." Cardin ordered. Pyrrha took this opportunity take a step back near the bathroom door.

"And what if I say no?" Pyrrha asked while tensing her body up.

"Then we'll need to change your mind." Cardin replied. He made a slight nodding motion which Pyrrha took as a signal for his cronies to attack. She was correct when Dove rushed at her from behind. She used her Semblance on the buttons on Dove's abdominal area and cuffs to tell where Dove was trying to hit her.

Pyrrha smirked at this.

Dove was caught off guard when Pyrrha moved her head to the right to dodge his punch. Pyrrha then spun around Dove and used her momentum to catch the back of Dove's head with her right hand before spinning his head directly into the wall next to the bathroom door. She heard a smack and a groan before letting Dove's head go.

Russell and Sky were the next to rush her. She ducked under their fist as they rushed to punch her and threw her fist into Russell solar plexus. She expected Russell to grab his stomach in pain, what she didn't expect was for Cardin to tackle her.

Pyrrha while slightly surprised by this new element was able to roll with it, quite literally in fact as she rolled backwards with Cardin's tackle so that he was on his back and Pyrrha was straddling his stomach. Then she began to repeatedly punch Cardin in the face until she felt that Cardin wouldn't be getting off the ground.

"Leave Jaune alone or else the next beating will be worse." Pyrrha warned. She looked up at Sky who slowly looked at the beatdown that Pyrrha had just performed before making up his mind and running away.

As she got off Cardin she walked over to the trashcan and grabbed the handle of it before throwing it at Sky while using her Semblance to give the can some extra speed. Her aim was true as the trashcan took Sky off his feet and onto his back.

After brushing her skirt down she walked away from the four bullies. "Good talk." Pyrrha said offhandedly.

* * *

Pyrrha didn't speak about her activities to Jaune as she didn't believe it to be of any real importance. The group of bullies only really picked on those who didn't fight back and after getting severely beaten they wouldn't be coming near her anytime soon.

While Pyrrha didn't condone solving all problems with violence, she could for certain say that it felt really good to beat all three of the bullies. It was even funnier when she told Nora of what she had done to the group as she acted like a giddy child on a birthday.

"Pyrrha, please tell me that you broke their legs!?" Nora begged. Pyrrha smiled at this before shaking her head.

"I didn't break their legs but I did hurt their pride." Pyrrha replied. The group was the library as they spoke which meant that Ren was growing quite annoyed as he wished to study and not have to listen to his partner shout. Nora never did have an inside voice, sadly enough.

"Oh. But at least you got to hit them. I wish I could go and do that but Renny keeps preventing me from doing so." Nora stated. Jaune walked behind her as she said this and sat at the table.

"And what does Ren keep preventing from doing?" Jaune asked. Nora, the chatterbox that she was, was about to spill everything when Pyrrha put her hand over the hyper girl's mouth and answered for her.

"He's preventing her from bringing pancakes into the library. She has tried to repeatedly do so but Ren figures it out really quickly." Pyrrha lied. She thought it was quite convincing but she really wished that she didn't need to lie to the blond.

"Well, that's good. So, have you heard about Forever Fall? Apparently we are going to collect some sap or something." Jaune sat down next to Pyrrha.

"We heard about it as well. Are you prepared for it, Jaune? It is a little dangerous there since it's teaming with Grimm." Pyrrha asked. While she knew that Jaune could take on a few Grimm due to the training that he had received, she still felt a little worried for the blonde. Se did not want to lose her friend due to some random accident in the woods.

"Yeah, I'm sure. So did you do anything exciting today, Pyrrha?"

"No, not really. It was just a normal boring day."

* * *

 **Two Weeks Later**

* * *

In a forest a gray trees with Red leaves, the students of Beacon were following after their teacher, Glynda Goodwitch. Jaune noticed how the forest looked quite beautiful though he knew that it hid monsters that would like to tear him apart if they were able.

Glynda stopped and turned to look at the students which caused all of the students to halt their march. Sergeant Slaughter had been oddly quiet today which Jaune greatly appreciated. That riding crop really had it out for him. Though he was slightly confused as to why Miss Goodwitch would even use a riding crop as a weapon. Unless…nah! He probably shouldn't think of his teacher being a dominatrix who had a secret sex dungeon hidden in Beacon somewhere that probably was visited by the other faculty aaaaannnd he should probably stop thinking about his teacher's personal life.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Glynda commanded.

Jaune and his team all carried separate jars for this endeavor. Glynda pulled out a jar filled with sap and held it before her. Now when did get the time to fill that? And where did she pull that jar from? Jaune decided to stop thinking about the older woman. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates."

Well wasn't that just wonderful. Everything in this world just wanted to kill him. Oddly enough he had noticed how Cardin and his group had been avoiding him for some reason. At least it seemed like Cardin would no longer bother him so that was one improvement that he could agree with.

"Let's split up into groups of two so that we can get spread out to get more sap." Jaune reasoned.

"Sure! Me and Renny will go together!" Nora shouted as she grabbed Ren in a hug.

"WE WILL COLLECT ALL THE SAP!" Magnhild said.

"Oh boy. Does this mean that we have to work with waste-of-skin?" Akoúo asked in an annoyed tone. That weapon really had it out for him. Pyrrha smiled at Jaune which he returned in kind. Soon the group of four split into two groups of two which walked to different areas of the forest, not far enough from each other so that they wouldn't be able to call out or see one another, but far enough that they had their space.

"So, how about I get the sap while you watch out for Grimm?" Jaune asked.

"Sounds perfect. Let's go find a tree with a tap in it." Pyrrha replied. Jaune nodded and the two walked together until they noticed a tree that had a tap in it. Pyrrha pointed to it and the two walked over.

"Seems like you are doing a lot better this week, Jaune. Pyrrha really is a good fit for you." Crocea remarked.

"As if old man. Pyrrha may be good for Jaune but Jaune is not good enough for my Pyrrha." Akoúo replied.

"Stop calling me old you shit! I am really getting tired of your damn disrespect!" Crocea screamed in frustration. Jaune kneeled before the tree and put his jar under the tap. He turned the handle on it and sap began to pour out and into the jar. Soon the jar filled up to the brim which Jaune put the cap on and set aside. He pulled Pyrrha's jar and placed it under the tap and started filling it.

"Jaune, turn around!" Crocea screamed out. Jaune quickly followed his partner's instructions and yet he was too late as he heard the sound of glass shattering and Pyrrha scream of pain.

What he saw was Pyrrha slightly dazed yet her head was covered in sticky red sap with some pieces of glass in her hair.. "Pyrrha! Are you okay!?" Jaune asked in concern as he quickly stood up from where he was crouching.

"There's sap in my eyes!" Pyrrha said in pain as she tried to wipe the sap from her eyes. Sadly her efforts were wasted as it just spread the sap on her face. Jaune moved over quickly to Pyrrha grabbed her hands to stop Pyrrha from rubbing her eyes.

"Let me get that off." Jaune said as he used his sleeve to start wiping the sap from her eyes. "Can you open your eyes or does it still hurt?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha tried to open her green eyes and from Jaune could see they were red and irritated. Pyrrha quickly shut her eyes afterwards.

"I can't, it stings too much." Pyrrha said. Her eyes were slightly tearing up due to how irritated her eyes were.

"Don't worry, we can just sit down and take a break. Would that be alright?" Jaune asked. There was some weird buzzing in the background that he could hear but Jaune ignored it for the problem at hand.

"Yes. That would be great, Jaune." Pyrrha replied. Jaune put Pyrrha's arm over his shoulder and slowly led her to a tree in order to set her down. That buzzing was getting even louder which was slightly worrying Jaune. He turned around and saw a black cloud that was moving towards both Pyrrha and him. "I-is something wrong, Jaune?"

When the black cloud got closer to their position he noticed that they looked like large black wasps except that they had massive stingers like syringes. Jaune's eyes widened as he moved Pyrrha away from the trees while the black cloud still followed them. "Pyrrha, there are a bunch of bugs coming towards us and they have massive stingers. If you can see then I would suggest that we run!" Jaune stated.

"Sounds like Rapier Wasps. That's weird though, they shouldn't be in this area." Pyrrha tried to wipe her eyes with her hand yet it still hurt too much to open them. "I can't. I'm sorry, Jaune. They are probably coming after me due to the sap that's on me. Just leave me behind, Jaune."

"Not going to happen, Pyrrha. If anything happens, then we will deal with it together. Now please don't get mad at me for this." Jaune said.

"Get mad at-" Pyrrha was interrupted as Jaune picked up Pyrrha in a bridal carry and took off running. Behind him the buzzing continued. Jaune tried to pick up speed in order to outrun the wasps. He ran past Ren and Nora which confused them.

"Why are you running?!" Nora called after him.

"RAPIER WASPS!" Jaune screamed back while running. Jaune thought of what to do. He couldn't just keep running as he would eventually get too tired since he was also carrying Pyrrha and the Spartan was quite heavy. Actually if the situation wasn't so dire then he would probably be absolutely embarrassed that he was holding an extremely attractive girl in his arms.

Now how could he deal with the problem at hand? There weren't any ponds or lakes nearby that he could just jump into with Pyrrha. Maybe if all these bugs could be set on fire, but who could do that? There was Yang who usually could set herself on fire, Weiss who could use her rapier to set the bugs alight, or he could just run to Miss Goodwitch.

Yang probably would be that enthusiastic about jumping into a cloud of wasps though, Goodwitch was too scary, so that just left Weiss. Now there was only one thing left to do. "WEISS! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Jaune shouted out.

"Wasps are still behind you and it seems like they are catching up." Crocea stated.

"Better not drop my partner or I will kill you." Akoúo said in a slightly worried tone compared to how he usually was. Jaune ignored the weapon and called out for Weiss again. He called for Weiss a few more times and finally when he felt like he would just need to keep running his hopes were answered.

"What!" Weiss shouted to his right. Jaune turned to run in that direction and saw the white clothed form of Weiss standing thirty feet ahead of him.

"USE YOUR FIRE DUST AND SET THESE WASPS ON FIRE!" Jaune commanded. He noticed that Weiss was slightly hesitant until she noticed the cloud of wasps trailing after him.

"Kill the bugs, Weiss!" Ruby shouted. Weiss nodded and pulled out her rapier.

"Run faster!" Weiss shouted at Jaune. Jaune's legs burned from all this running but he needed to continue on. Just fifteen feet to go and Weiss could set these bugs on fire. He was going as fast as he could but he needed to go faster. Faster. Faster

FASTER!

Jaune heard the clanking of metal resounding from his legs but he ignored this as he felt himself going even faster than before. He quickly made it passed Weiss and heard the sound of her rapier as it fired off an inferno at the bugs. Jaune noticed that he needed to slow down as there was a tree ahead of him and Pyrrha. He realized that he couldn't slow down fast enough without tripping and hurting Pyrrha so he decided to take a different option.

He jumped and twisted in the air and felt his back smack against the tree. He slid down onto his butt and let out a breath that he didn't even realize that he was holding. He looked down at Pyrrha and smiled.

"So have all the wasps been taken care of?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah. Are you going to be alright?" Pyrrha nodded and rubbed her eyes. She opened her eyes once more and while they still looked irritated, they weren't as bad as earlier. Pyrrha struggled to keep her eyes open under the burning pain but she smiled at Jaune in order to calm him.

"Thank you for helping me, Jaune. I don't know what I would've done without you." Pyrrha said. Jaune started picking the pieces of glass that was still stuck in Pyrrha's hair.

"You don't need to thank me, you are my friend and I would do anything to help you if it was needed." Jaune replied with certainty. Pyrrha began to blush at this. She never knew how dedicated Jaune was at being a good person but right now, she could feel her heart rate quicken and a blush reach her cheeks.

"Jaune, thank you for helping Pyrrha. You're still a jackass." Akoúo said with a tone of annoyance. Jaune was surprised at how he was actually being treated with something possibly amounting to what could be considered respect from the sword, spear, gun, whatever. He ignored this in favor of Pyrrha though.

Slowly Jaune picked Pyrrha up and stood up before placing her back onto the tree that he was sitting on. Weiss and Ruby ran over to the two of them with looks of concern.

"So how did you guys end up getting chased by Rapier Wasps? And Pyrrha, why are you covered in sap?" Ruby asked.

"Someone threw a jar of sap at my head and then the Rapier Wasps began chasing us. Jaune helped me escape from the Wasps when they chased after me." Pyrrha replied.

"Well at least you're not hurt, Pyrrha." Weiss said.

"Hey what about me?" Jaune asked.

"You're still alive so you're fine. Quit whining, Jaune." Weiss said. Behind Ruby and Weiss, Ren and Nora ran up.

"What happened?" Nora asked. As she said this, Jaune noticed Team CRDL walking away laughing as they looked at both Pyrrha. Jaune's mind quickly pieced together what happened. Or more specifically, who started this whole problem in the first place. A burning rage began to fill Jaune as he looked at Cardin. He looked down at Pyrrha and patted her on the shoulder.

"I'll be right back Pyrrha." Jaune said as he stood up from where he was crouched and walked over to Cardin. He knew that he needed to control his anger but after seeing Pyrrha almost get seriously injured because of stupid prank or revenge scheme, that crossed the line. He heard a clicking coming from his right fist but he ignored it in favor of facing against Cardin.

"In any other situation I would say no, but this, you have free reign to do whatever you wish." Crocea growled out. "Keep your head though and make sure that you know what you're doing." Crocea advised. Jaune nodded and eventually he stood face to face with the taller teen.

"Hey Jauney-boy! How was your-" Jaune used all of his anger that filled him and put it all into a single punch aimed directly at Cardin's mouth which made the teen scream in pain. Cardin's teammates were absolutely speechless as they watched the weak teen from before deck Cardin in the face.

"Never talk to, touch, or even look at my friends again or I will do everything in my power to destroy you. Got it!?" Jaune shouted. He didn't even bother looking at Cardin as he walked away from the teen and back to his friends.

"You did good, laddie, you did good." Crocea said. Jaune walked up to the others with a grin on his face while his heart hammered in his chest. When he walked up to the others he felt elated at dealing with one his issues personally. What Jaune noticed upon walking up to the others was how their jaws were dropped.

"Hey guys, how are you doing? I feel pretty good right now." Jaune stated. Their jaws were still dropped for some reason. "What? Is something wrong?" Ruby was the first to come out of her stupor and pointed to Jaune's hand.

"W-what with your hand?" Ruby asked. This confused Jaune. He looked down at his right hand and saw to his shock that his hand was, well, it looked like blades were covering his hand in a gauntlet.

"What is this?!" Jaune asked himself as he looked at his hand. He bent his fingers and the bladed claws that could be considered his fingers, bent with them. He looked everyone with a look of confusion. "I don't know?" Jaune replied. He gripped parts of the bladed gauntlet and tugged at it. The pain that felt like he was ripping something off his skin returned like last time this happened. Eventually he managed to tug it off with some effort on his part along with pained grunts. He held the gauntlet in his hand with confusion.

"What is going on here?!" A voice commanded. Everyone in the area stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the origin of the voice.

Miss Goodwitch had entered the fray.

"Well? Why was there screaming and fire coming from this area?" Glynda asked. Jaune gathered some courage that still surged from within himself and answered.

"Cardin Winchester and his group threw a jar of sap at Pyrrha and then set a whole hive of Rapier Wasps after us." Jaune replied. Glynda looked past Jaune to where Pyrrha was sitting covered in sap while rubbing her eyes.

"Miss Nikos, there is some water back at Bulkhead that you can use to wash out your eyes. Mr. Arc, Team CRDL, you'll both be coming with me as well." Glynda commanded. Jaune nodded and walked over to Pyrrha before he helped her onto her feet.

"Can you still see or do you need some help?" Jaune asked.

"I can see but it still hurts. Would you mind walking with me?" Pyrrha replied.

"Not a problem."

"Thanks." Pyrrha appeared to gain a look of realization as she turned to look at Nora and Ren. "Come on you guys, I think that you are needed." She told the two. Both of them understood why Pyrrha wanted them quite easily but Jaune was still confused.

"So why are they coming as well, Miss Goodwitch only wanted us and CRDL."

"Do you trust me?" Pyrrha asked.

"Absolutely."

"Then you'll see."

* * *

 **Now after investigating, fighting, and running, things will finally be coming together. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as we are slowly approaching the end of Volume One. See you guys next time. Stay frosty my friends.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Ten: Stand and Deliver**

* * *

Pyrrha felt a few things at this moment. One of them was excitement, another was nervousness, and finally the last one was sticky. Yeah, being covered in tree sap was not a high point of her day that she viewed as something to be proud of. But it was quite thrilling when she saw Jaune land that punch on Cardin. It was something that was hard to be believed. Even so, both she and Jaune were not out of the frying pan just yet, they still needed to deal with Cardin and his group.

As Pyrrha washed her eyes and face of the tree sap still on it with a water bottle, she kept trying to think of how this upcoming conversation with Professor Goodwitch would go. She was quite late into the action and so she only saw the aftermath. That was a scorched forest, Cardin holding his mouth in pain, and herself covered in sap. It would be a confusing mess for any random person to deal with, no less a teacher as Team CRDL immediately began blaming Jaune for everything that happened when they were forced to climb aboard the Bulkhead with her and Jaune as well as Ren and Nora who tagged along on their little adventure.

After Pyrrha finished washing her eyes out she walked over to where Team CRDL, JNR, and Goodwitch were. When Glynda saw Pyrrha join the group, she nodded in response. Then she turned her attention to the whole group of teens before her.

"Now, could one of you please explain what happened out there?" Glynda asked in a calm tone laced with barely hidden anger. Cardin was the first to step up with a smug smile plastered across his face.

"Well from what we saw, some rapier wasps were chasing after Jaune and Pyrrha and Weiss destroyed them, and then Jaune walked over and punched me in the mouth." Cardin replied before he stepped back to his team. Glynda nodded and looked at Team JNPR.

"Now, let's hear your side of the story. For instance, why Mr. Arc, did you punch Mr. Winchester?" Jaune walked forward and answered.

"It's Cardin's fault. I know that he attacked Pyrrha and sent the rapier wasps after us. And that is why I punched him." Jaune replied.

"And how do you know that Mr. Winchester was responsible? Do you have evidence for this?"

"I don't know how I know, but I know that it was him." Jaune said. The look on his face showed how much of a losing battle that he was fighting.

"An excuse is not the same as an answer. If you had anything to back up your claims then I might be able to look into this more. As of right now, you attacked Mr. Winchester completely unprovoked which means that we'll need to bring this to Ozpin." Glynda said.

Pyrrha saw the look on Cardin's face. It was one of triumph. It was one that Pyrrha hated with a passion. This boy was not worthy of being a huntsman. He and his group were nothing but thugs with powers. Just as Pyrrha was about step forward and speak, she was made happy when both Ren and Nora did so instead.

"Miss Goodwitch, we have some things to show you, they involve Cardin and his group." Ren said as a small ghost of a smile flitted across his features. Team CRDL on the other hand looked worried when they heard this news. Nora walked over to Glynda with a skip in her step and handed the older woman her Scroll with the pictures and videos loaded onto it.

Glynda swiped past each picture and her expression grew colder and colder. She didn't even bother looking at the videos before she closed the Scroll. "Miss Valkyrie, I will be borrowing this for a while." Glynda said in a tone that wouldn't accept 'no' as an answer. Nora nodded at this with a smile. "All of us will be going to Ozpin the minute we get back. None of you are to leave this Bulkhead. Is that understood?" Glynda asked.

"Yes ma'am," The teens all said together. Glynda nodded and walked away. The group of teens could hear her shouting from inside the Bulkhead for all the students to get ready to leave. This just left Teams CRDL and JNPR alone together. Cardin would normally have charged to the group but he remembered what Jaune did before so he instead ordered his team to the furthest side of the ship.

When Jaune saw this he sighed and leaned his back against the wall of the ship before sliding down into a sitting position. "So Jaune, what's with that cool gauntlet of yours?" Nora asked. Jaune looked down at his hand to realize that he was still clutching the gauntlet that he ripped off his hand earlier. He tossed it to Nora who caught it and began to inspect it.

"Don't know. It just appeared on my hand when I went to punch Cardin." Jaune replied. He then began to pull up his jeans and saw that on the sides of his legs, there was a trail of interlocking blades that went farther up his leg and all the way down to his feet. He tried to pick these blades off of his legs and he scrunched up his face when he pulled each blade off and dropped it into a pile next to him.

"Jaune, how long has that been happening?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune looked up at his partner before sighing.

"It's been happening ever since Cardin cornered me a few weeks ago." Jaune replied as he finished pulling off the last blade on his left leg. It hurt but he was halfway done. Just as he was about to begin the preening on his right leg, Pyrrha grabbed his hand which made Jaune look up at the redhead.

"Let me help with that." Pyrrha said as she put herself in front of Jaune's leg so that Team CRDL's vision would be obscured from what was about to happen next. With barely any concentration, Pyrrha used her Semblance to rip out the blades attached to Jaune's right leg which caused him to grunt in pain. She then used her polarity to drop the blades into a pile. "Better?" Pyrrha asked.

"Thanks." Jaune replied as Pyrrha helped him off the floor of the ship.

"What do you think those blades are from?" Nora asked as she poked at the pile of blades with her right hand which now was wearing the gauntlet.

"I don't know. And it scares me." Jaune replied.

"Here's an explanation that might work, it's your Semblance." Ren stated. Jaune gave a strange look at Ren when he said this. Wasn't his Semblance to be able to speak to weapons? How in the world could he have two Semblances? It just seemed impossible. Jaune eventually voiced his opinions and Ren shrugged in response. "It was just a guess. I really have no idea, but that seemed the most plausible out of everything."

"We'll figure this out together, Jaune. First though, we have to deal with Cardin." Pyrrha said. Eventually more student began to walk onto the Bulkhead as Glynda called them back. Eventually Glynda joined them on the ship and soon they were taking off. Jaune had been learning over the weeks on how to control his motion sickness and this helped him halfway through the journey until he vomited onto the ground.

* * *

Or stood in front of a wooden training dummy in the middle of the woods. His shirt was off which revealed the toned physic that he had kept over the years after he quit being a huntsman. Beatrice knew that he came out here once a week and had accepted that while he may have quit being a huntsman, he would always have the urge to do something physical.

In Or's right hand was a dulled metal sword which he used to practice his fighting. He struck at the dummy three more times before performing a spin which was quickly stopped when a hand grabbed his sword. Or looked at the gauntleted hand of a very familiar face.

"Hello, dad." Or said calmly. The older man gave his son a smirk before he let go of the training sword.

"Now isn't this just a surprise. I thought that you were done with this game." Acier stated. Or responded with a slice at his father which Acier blocked with the gauntlet which now extended itself so that Acier's arm was completely armored, the fingers had become foot long razors. "You are a lot slower than I remember."

"How did you find me?" Or asked as he continued his mock battle with his father.

"I'm your dad; of course I would know where you are." Acier replied as he ducked a slice.

"Beatrice told you." Or stated as he leaned to the side to avoid Acier's claw weapon.

"Beatried told me." Acier agreed. He then made a slice at Or's exposed chest but he blocked it with his robotic left arm. Acier smirked at this. "You have gotten used to your arm. How long did it take? A few decades?" Or revealed nothing with his expression and instead took hold of Acier's wrist and began to push back.

"It only took five years. Now why are you here?" Or asked. Acier smirk and kicked Or's legs from under him. This made the man fall to the ground and that was when Acier punched upon the younger man with his dagger-like fingers at Or's throat.

"You got sloppy." Acier stated. Before hopping off Or and helping the younger man up to his feet.

"I am just out of practice. Now why are you here?" Or asked once again as he walked over to the training dummy and placed the training sword next to it.

"Well, I need your help with something…" Acier began. Or shook his head.

"If it involves fighting then you can consider me a no show. I told you that I'm done. Even my fighting skills are sub par these days. Find another person who can waste their life on one of your damn quests." Or replied as he began to walk away.

"And what if I told you that Beacon might be involved?" Acier asked after the man. Or stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his father.

"What could you be possibly talking about? Hmm?" Or began to pace towards his father as anger began to fill his face. "I thought that you said that Beacon was safe. That Jaune would be completely fine. So what could you have possibly done that has endangered my son?!" Or asked as he stood a foot away from his father.

"There are things I have learned, son, things that I wished that Ozpin didn't tell me a few months ago." Acier said with some fear in his voice. Or was taken aback, his father was never afraid, he was always full of bravery. So what could he have possibly been told that would make him afraid? "There is something hidden at the school, something of great importance which is desired by people who will use it for terrible evil. I may need your help, Or."

"When did you know about this?" Or asked.

"A few months after Jaune went to Beacon." Or grabbed Acier by the collar of his shirt with his robotic arm.

"Did you knowingly send my son to what may end up being a powder keg? And for what? To get me off my ass?!"

"No, I sent Jaune to Beacon because it was the best place I knew of that could teach Jaune to be a true hero. I didn't even believe Ozpin at first when he told me of the danger. Recently though, he showed me something that put my doubts at rest." Acier replied.

"And what was that?" Acier growled out.

"I can't tell you. But I want you to know that I need you. Your son may need you. And all of Remnant will need you." Acier felt the grip of Or's arm loosen before his collar was let go.

"I'll think about what you told me. Now don't come back here unless I call you. Do you understand, dad." Or said. Acier nodded and Or walked away.

"The world needs you more than you would think!" Acier shouted after the retreating figure of his son.

"The world already used me. All that it could take now is my life." Or calmly shouted back before he eventually disappeared down the well trodden path of the forest and soon Acier was left completely alone in the woods.

"No, there are much worse things that could be taken from you. You just haven't seen it all yet." Acier said to himself before he began to walk away. He knew that he was from an age long since passed. He was one of the few people in the world who didn't specialize in transforming weapons. And he was one of the few that never really had a team to back him up.

He had partners and companions over the years, but he didn't have much else. Instead it had always been just him and his trusty sword, now gauntlet, which had been together. After all of the danger had passed, Acier probably would retire and go on a long vacation. Things these days were getting too out of his league for him.

Didn't the saying go that old dogs can't learn new tricks?

* * *

Both Team JNPR and CRDL stood before Ozpin, Glynda, and the other teachers. All of them had expressions of solemn seriousness plastered over their faces as they looked over the evidence that had been presented to them. Ozpin held out Nora's Scroll to the girl and she took it with a slight smile on her face.

Ozpin sighed as he looked down at his desk in silent contemplation. "Mr. Winchester, Thrush, Bronzewing, and Lark…these are very serious allegations that have been brought up. There is a plethora of evidence showing this. Can you please tell me why that is so?" Ozpin asked in an eerily calm tone.

"Those images were obviously doctored. We did nothing like what has been shown." Cardin replied. All of Team CRDL were slightly fearful. Their actions had not been noticed at all over the past few months which made them very happy when they first started to pick on others at Beacon. Over the months they began to escalate and yet they still were not punished. Now they knew.

"Then if that is the case, what would you recommend that we do to the people who have apparently framed you for these charges with doctored photos?" Ozpin asked. Team CRDL began to whisper among themselves before Cardin replied.

"They should all be kicked out of Beacon for showing conduct unbecoming of future Huntsmen and Huntresses." Ozpin nodded and pressed a button on his desk.

"You may come up now." He said before releasing the button. He then sat back in his chair and sipped on his cup of coffee. After a minute, the elevator doors behind them opened and out stepped a girl with long brown hair wearing a suit consisting of orange and black. Her most noticeable feature was the pair of long brown bunny ears atop her head.

Team CRDL's faces turned a pale white at the girl. Her name was Velvet Scarlatina and just as she entered the room, she became slightly timid as she noticed Team CRDL staring at her.

"H-hello, professor." She said to Ozpin.

"Greetings Miss Scarlatina. Do you know why you are here?" Ozpin asked with a friendly smile to the girl.

"No, sir. Am I in trouble?" She asked. Ozpin shook his head.

"Not at all, Miss Scarlatina. No, I brought you here to clear a dispute that we were having. Would you be alright if I asked you a few questions?" Ozpin asked. Velvet nodded in response. "Good. Now, have you ever encountered Team CRDL before?"

Velvet was slightly hesitant but she eventually nodded. "And did they do anything that could be construed as harassment?" Once again the Faunus girl nodded and the pallid skin color of Team CRDL turned even paler. Ozpin then tapped onto his desk and a video appeared on it.

The video showed Cardin pulling on her ears while the rest of RDL laughed on at her discomfort. Ozpin quickly exited the clip and looked back up at Velvet. "Miss Scarlatina, could you please tell me if what happened on the video actually happened to you. Or is it a fake?"

"It is completely real. They did harass me that day and did exactly that." Velvet replied. Her ears slightly drooped as she said this due to remembering the pain that she felt when Cardin pulled on her ears.

"Thank you, Miss Scarlatina. You have been very brave today for doing this. You may leave." Velvet nodded and walked out of the room while averting her eyes from Team CRDL. Ozpin quickly looked up at the group of four as the smile he once had disappeared into that of a man planning something. "Now, would you care to tell me if the video that was played was fake or not?" Team CRDL had no response.

"Because this video has been proven to be real, then I would assume that the pictures that were taken are also real as well." Ozpin stated. "You four boys have committed numerous acts against other students with the intention to harm or humiliate. In a normal situation, you four would be in detention for the rest of the year." Ozpin's eyes flitted over to Pyrrha and Jaune before looking back at them.

"Today though, I have heard tales of how you assaulted Miss Nikos and then, you sent a swarm of rapier wasps after them. Do you understand that you could have caused serious harm to Miss Nikos?"

"It was just a simple prank!" Cardin shouted.

"A simple prank does not risk the lives of fellow students. Especially with how you blinded Miss Nikos so that she wouldn't have even been able to defend herself, much less get away from the rapier wasps." Ozpin took another sip from his coffee before he set it down on the desk and folded his hands under his chin. "Being a Huntsman or a Huntress involves being a role model for others to follow. You are meant to be protecting lives, so how could you be trusted with that responsibility if you so carelessly endanger your fellow classmates."

Ozpin breathed in deeply before he talked once more, "I will be alerting your parents tonight. You four will also be packing. Tomorrow you will receive a ride back to your homes."

"What!" Russel shouted, "Why are we going down with Cardin? It was his idea in the first place!" The teen shouted. Soon enough, the two other members of Cardin's team also blamed their leader as well. Eventually the group fell into bickering among themselves.

"Quiet!" Ozpin said in a calm loud tone. The group of four was quickly silenced. "You three may not have planned out the ideas, but you still followed after your leader's example. You may all leave now." Ozpin said as he reached for his coffee and took a sip. "Team JNPR, I need to speak with you privately." Ozpin said. The other teachers understood what Ozpin wanted and headed to the elevator with Team CRDL. When they had left the room, Ozpin looked at the four; each one he gave a long stare.

"It is always a terrible thing, expelling a student from the school. I hate to do it as it's such a waste of potential. But sometimes there are just no other options. My question for you four is, how long have all of you been documenting Team CRDL's actions?" Ozpin asked in a tired voice.

"We have been doing it ever since CRDL attacked Jaune." Ozpin looked at Jaune.

"They attacked you, Mr. Arc?"

"Yes." Jaune took a moment to swallow the lump in his throat before continuing, "You know how I can speak to weapons, sir?" Ozpin nodded. "They ambushed me during one of my morning jogs and then they held me down while they melted a dagger in my face. I-I can still hear the screams in my head." Jaune finished while Pyrrha just patted her partner on the back.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you Mr. Arc. But why didn't you say anything of this to me before?"

"I felt weak and I just didn't want anyone to know about it. It was a problem that I thought that I could deal with on my own." Jaune replied.

"Sometimes even the best of us need help. Look at your team and what you accomplished when they wished to help you. You managed to expose a problem in the school and I have to thank you for it." Ozpin smiled at the four. "You have all done good work so I would think that the best option right now is to take a break. And Pyrrha,"

"Yes, sir?"

"You may want to get into the showers quickly, once that sap hardens then it is quite difficult to remove." The four then left the room and left Ozpin alone.

When they entered the elevator, the group finally stopped being tense and displayed their mood in multiple different ways. Nora showed this by grabbing the group into a bear hug and lifted them off the ground. "We finally did it! We stopped CRDL!" Nora shouted which while being true to form, eventually it devolved into her calling herself queen of the castle. The weapons on the other hand talked excitedly among themselves.

"Thank whoever is up there watching, that those bastards finally got what they deserved." Crocea announced in happiness.

"That's something that we can both agree on, old man." Miló agreed.

"Young shit."

"Old fart."

"Can you both-"

"Please stop-"

"Arguing!" StormFlower shouted. "We have finally-"

"Managed to deal-"

"With a big issue." Miló and Crocea remained silent after this as both knew that if one said something, the other was sure to argue. Both had begun to learn about one another after they had spent so much time together.

"YES! NOW WE HAVE BROKEN THE CRDL SPIRIT! I WISH WE COULD HAVE BROKEN THEIR BODIES!" Magnhild announced with glee in his voice. Eventually Nora let her teammates down and Jaune and Pyrrha smiled at their teammate's enthusiasm. Ren just let a ghost of a smile appear on his face.

"So, what do we do now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Survive the rest of the year, win the Vytal tournament, and deal with vacation." Ren summed up as simply as he could. Jaune looked at Ren with confusion.

"What Vytal tournament?" Jaune asked with confusion.

* * *

After making it back to their dorm room, all the while Pyrrha and Ren explained the tournament to him, they entered the room where Pyrrha quickly went into the shower. She eventually came out wearing only a towel while her hair was let down. In her hand were her clothes that had been covered in sap.

"I'll drop these off in the wash. See you guys later." Before she could leave, Jaune grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around.

"Don't leave just yet. I need to tell you guys something that has been nagging me for a while," Jaune said.

"What is it, Jauney? Are you secretly a superhero that goes out into Vale to stop crime?" Nora asked. Jaune smiled at Nora and shook his head.

"No, it's something that I didn't know that I could trust you with until now."

"Then what is it, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. Ren and Nora sat down on their beds and looked at Jaune as he slowly pushed himself to tell his secret.

"You can do it, Jaune. If these people were willing to help you after all this, then they'll be willing to accept that you faked your way into here." Crocea said in an effort to help the boy get over his fear of being rejected by his friends.

"I never actually passed the entrance exams into Beacon. I faked my transcripts." Jaune blurted out.

* * *

 **And look at that. A problem has been taken care of and soon enough, another problem will emerge given Jaune's luck. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and to see you guys next time.**

 **Also to update you all, I am finally getting a new computer tomorrow in order to replace this one (I call it Big Bertha) which will mean that I will probably be even faster in updating.**

 **And in order to answer two of your questions, the chapters come to me as I type, I have no plan. And I literally type most chapters up in a day. The reason: college. It's coming up which means that my free time will be taken up. Until then, I'll be pumping out as many chapters as I can in the following weeks. Along with that, I have made a new fic which I may begin work on with the reception that it received. (Hint: It involves Iron Man and the Avengers)**

 **Now, because you have managed to give this over nine hundred follows on the way to being OVER ONE THOUSAND!**

 **Omake!**

* * *

Glynda walked through the hallways of the school with a mind full of questions. Over the last few days, her associates had started to become quite…strange. They always were quite eccentric but this was pushing it. Over the last few days, all of them had developed even larger addictions to coffee than before. They also had formed this sort of clique which she had apparently been excluded from.

For instance, Glynda saw Ozpin in the office drinking from the coffee pot. Addiction aside, Ozpin always drank from his cup. He never in all their years of working together had drank it from the pot.

Then there was Oobleck. It was scary with how calm he had become over the past few days. Whatever pills that the man was taking, they were definitely working.

As Glynda opened the door to the staffroom, she saw her associates crowing around a table together. "Hello? What are all of you doing over there?" Glynda asked. They all ignored her. This annoyed Glynda as the behavior that they were showing had been happening all this week.

Glynda's heels clicked against the floor as she grabbed the nearest person, who happened to be Ozpin. "Alright, this behavior is becoming both an annoyance and a-" When she turned the man around, her mouth dropped open as she looked at the man before her.

A brown sludge was frothing out of Ozpin's mouth while the whites of his eyes had become brown. "Ozpin, what's happened to you?!" Glynda asked. She looked at her other associates who turned towards her with the same physical features that Ozpin had. "All of you wait here, I'll go get some help." Glynda said before turning around to leave. She was unable to as someone grabbed her arm quite roughly.

Glynda turned and looked at Ozpin. Around them the others moved closer. "Ozpin, let me go get help."

"But we don't need help. We just need coffee. Nice, rejuvenating coffee." Glynda tried to pull her hand away from Ozpin but his grip was like a vice.

"Yes, Glynda, you must know what the coffee can show you. Join us." Oobleck said from behind her as he grabbed her into a headlock.

"All of you are very sick. Just let me get some help for all of you and we can fix this together." Glynda said with fear in her voice.

"There is nothing to fix, Glynda. But, we wish to fix you." Port said as he walked over and grabbed Glynda's legs.

"I don't need to be fixed! Just let me go!" The three teachers lifted Glynda off the floor and onto the table. She tried to struggle but she was unable.

"Soon you'll be one of us Glynda!" Ozpin stated with a smile as sludge dripped from his mouth and onto her blouse, staining it brown.

"One of us!" Port and Oobleck chanted. Glynda felt Ozpin try to pry her jaw open but she fought against it. Eventually after her jaw muscles burned with pain, Ozpin pulled her mouth open and began to vomit sludge into her mouth.

* * *

It was strange, Glynda thought, that she even wanted to fight against her friends. All of them wanted to just help to fix her which she realized was desperately needed. She wiped some of the excess sludge off of her lips as she rose up into a sitting position on the table. Her colleagues smiled at her as they walked away.

Glynda smiled in return before removing her glasses. The coffee really did fix her. It gave her such knowledge, such power, such connectedness to her colleagues. But with all this power surging inside of her, why did they wish to keep this feeling from anyone?

No, they must give everyone the truth, the truth of the coffee.

All must be one under the coffee.

One of us. One of us! ONE OF US!

 **Omake end!**

 **Hoped you all enjoyed, thanks for supporting me in all of my ventures as of now. I will try to update even faster for you guys so that we can get into the really good parts. Stay frosty my friends.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Ten: Old Enemies**

* * *

In a forest Acier Arc walked. The area seemed quite calm and peaceful but it was anything but. He saw up ahead the beginnings of a swamp which was exactly where he wished to go. It had been a few years since he had come to this area of Remnant but the situation called for it. He pulled out his scroll and looked and the message that he had received from one of the few people that he bothered working with these days.

Qrow…

It wasn't a coincidence that Acier worked with Qrow more often than not. Mainly due to how it was so hard to kill Qrow. The brat just had a knack for living which was needed in jobs like these. It also helped mitigate Acier's crippling fear of losing a partner. He had lost too many over the years and by now it made it absolutely impossible for him to work with others.

Then again, it also didn't help that he was from an old generation of huntsmen. Back during the war, they weren't even called huntsmen or huntresses, no, they were called warriors. It fit the times as war was all they knew. They would fight off Grimm at times but that was just a way to protect the towns of the world.

When the war ended, it left a mass of warriors out of a job and since the world had gained a mass influx of fighters without a cause they needed something to do. This was remedied when cities began forming and rebranded these lost warriors with the term Huntman or Huntress. Acier remembered this time as one where he was lost and confused. It didn't help that the army that he was in broke up and left a teenager with a whole host of issues alone and untreated. Acier was thankful for when he met Athena. That woman helped him through life until sadly she too was lost. Before she died, Athena gave him a son which Acier would be forever thankful for.

As the old man walked through the woods, he heard a few snaps of twigs in the area. There was a reason that these swamps were rarely trekked through, the thieves and vagabonds were a nightmare here. Acier activated his gauntlet and the armor on it clanked up to his shoulder.

"I'm going to tell whoever is out there that I have no money and nothing of any value. It would be a waste of time and limb to try and rob me." Acier stated to whoever was in the area. If the person out there was smart, then they would go and look for another traveler to prey upon. If not, well, Acier was always willing to teach a lesson that involved pain.

In response, a few more sticks cracked around the woods until eventually a dark haired man with a scruffy looking face came walking out of the swamp. He had a gray and white jacket with the sleeves rolled up and a red cape along with black pants and leather shoes. Strapped to the back of his hip was a massive sword. He held his hands up in a mocking version of a surrender.

"Hey old man, you need to cool your jets." The man said in a laid back voice. Acier sighed before lowering his hand and letting his gauntlet shrink back down.

"Qrow, you need to respect your elders you young shit. Now why are you skulking around this swamp when you could've just walked down the road?" Acier asked with annoyance.

"Well, I could tell you that I was just enjoying the scenic view." Qrow replied.

"Bullshit." Acier immediately replied.

"I may have accidentally pissed off a few people around here." Qrow said with a grin. Acier smacked his forehead and groaned.

"You really are terrible with the locals, aren't you?" Qrow pulled out his sword and hefted it over his shoulder. Acier followed suit and reactivated his gauntlet. "So, who did you manage to piss off this time?" Acier asked.

"A whole group of bandits who didn't like how I was asking questions. So, what happened to your sword? I thought that thing was attached to you." Qrow asked as he scanned the forest for the oncoming enemies. Acier smirked and cracked his neck.

"I gave it to my grandson. He's in his first year at Beacon." Acier replied. There were splashes of water and the cracks of twigs. Acier saw the first enemy approaching and rushed at them. The man had a large Warhammer and wore a dark brown canvas coat. He swung the Warhammer at Acier who ducked under the blow and gave an uppercut to the man. Then the next blow went to his solar plexus.

Acier walked away from the fallen foe and towards Qrow who was already finished with the two enemies that he was fighting. "You're getting slower old man." Qrow stated.

"I'm still smarter than you. Now how many more should we expect?" He was answered by the cries of what sounded like six more people.

"That many." Qrow replied. It took another two minutes for the two to eventually defeat their enemies. At the end, Acier was rubbing his back while Qrow hitched his sword onto his hip once more. "You okay, old man?"

"Not as young as I used to be." Acier stretched and heard a few pops resound from his back. "So, what did you really do to piss all of these guys off?"

"Well, I first went to a this little camp and asked about White Fang activity and recent movements of criminal activities, yadda, yadda. To summarize everything, those people didn't like my questions and tried to kill me. So, what did you want to visit me for? I didn't take you for someone who gets lonely." Qrow stated with a smirk.

"No, I came out here to ask you about what happened with the Fall Maiden. I want your full report on it personally, instead of what Ozpin gave me." Acier said as his gauntlet shrunk back down.

"It wasn't one of my best days…"

"Is it ever. Just start at the beginning and go on from there…"

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha walked down the halls of Beacon together. Both had become much more connected to one another since the Forever Fall incident. It had been a nice change of scenery when they watched Team CRDL get picked up by a Bulkhead and get shipped away from Beacon. Now though, they walked together completely synchronized with one another.

Jaune was also quite happy that Milό was finally off of his case. Apparently the weapon had decided to ease up on Jaune after the whole incident. Though the weapon would still insult him at times, just well, less insults were given.

As they walked together, Jaune had noticed that Pyrrha was giving him these weird looks. She would stare at him when she thought that Jaune didn't notice and would quickly avert her gaze when she thought that Jaune was noticing. It made Jaune slightly curious at what she found to be so enamoring about him. But then again, Jaune found himself taking glances at Pyrrha as well.

It slightly frightened Jaune. Why was it that he found his gaze draw to the girl, and why did he feel this warmth in the pit of his stomach? He planned to ask Crocea about this later as this feeling kept coming back. It was similar to what he felt for Weiss before Crocea had finally opened his eyes along with how Weiss' personality had turned him off from her.

He would always feel something for the girl, but now it was much less. "Jaune…" Pyrrha began with a voice that held a nervous energy in it. Jaune looked at his partner. "I was wonder if…" Her voice began to trail off until it was just a whisper.

"Uh, what were you asking Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner with me?" Pyrrha said with a nervous edge in her voice.

"Yeah. That sounds great." Jaune replied. He could always go for some dinner. And maybe with the dinner, he could finally sort out these feelings that he had for Pyrrha. The girl in question perked up at his response.

"Excellent. We'll leave at six together. I'll take care of everything else." Pyrrha then quickly ran off and left Jaune all alone in the halls.

"So I take it that everything has been going well for you, Mr. Arc." The voice of Ozpin said behind him. Jaune turned and saw the older man sipping on his coffee with his cane in hand.

"Hello professor." Jaune replied. "Do you want to walk?" Jaune asked. Ozpin smiled and nodded. The two then went together down the hall in matching step with one another. The click of Ozpin's cane being the only consistent noise.

"It seems that Miss Nikos is quite excited to be going out on that dinner with you." Ozpin remarked with a smile and a look of happiness in his eyes that was hiding something else behind it.

"Yeah, she is. Pyrrha really bounced back from what happened a week ago." Jaune replied with a smile. Ozpin's smile slightly dropped at this.

"Miss Nikos is quite strong in that regard. Not many are that optimistic about the world like that. Truly the only other person that I have met in your graduating class who is like that is Miss Rose. So what do think about Miss Nikos?" Ozpin asked as he quickly changed the subject of the conversation. Jaune noticed that this was much different than how Ozpin normally talked to him.

"Pyrrha is an amazing partner. She smart, strong, and is someone that you can always depend on." Jaune quickly stated before he could even think about what he was saying.

"It seems like you two are doing well together. You know, most of the staff was quite surprised when they found out that the champion of Mistral was teamed up with the weakest student at Beacon. Some thought that you would drag Miss Nikos down but I know better that. The both of you even one another out." Ozpin said.

"Professor, I have a question for you,"

"Oh, and what would that be?" Ozpin took a sip of his coffee.

"Could this just be between us? I don't want anyone else to know about this if that is okay with you." Jaune asked. Ozpin looked at Jaune and nodded.

"I promise you that I will not speak of our conversation to anyone else. It will just be between us." Ozpin replied. Jaune could truly trust this man with anything that bothered him. Ozpin was a man that could stay silent about anything, or at least that was what Jaune believed since Ozpin hadn't spilled the beans about his fake transcripts.

"Well, I have recently been having these weird feelings about…Pyrrha. I don't know what to do about them because they were just like what I once had for Weiss but now, well, I just think it is strange for me to be feeling this way about my partner. And Pyrrha is just so much better at everything compared to me so I don't know what to do about it." Jaune said letting loose all of his anxieties to the older man.

"Jaune, there is a saying that youth is wasted upon the young. I would recommend that you spend some personal time with Pyrrha and try to not shy away from your feelings. If it doesn't work out, then at least you tried." Ozpin said with a warm smile.

"But I still feel weird thinking about it." Jaune replied. Ozpin chuckled at this which made Jaune look at him.

"Just think about what I said and if you have the courage, well, I'll leave it up to you." Ozpin then began to walk away from Jaune. As he left Ozpin thought about everything he said. Jaune and Pyrrha should enjoy the time they have to be teenagers. Soon enough, everything would change one way or another.

* * *

 **Four Minutes Earlier**

* * *

As Jaune and Ozpin walked and talked with one another, two others were also conversing.

"So Crocea, how have you been recently?" Ozpin's cane asked.

"I've been great, Aux. The lad has become much stronger over the past few weeks and he has also slightly matured." Crocea replied to the cane.

"It appears that both you and the boy are a fine match for one another. It's almost is like how you were with Plom-" Aux was quickly interrupted by Crocea.

"Don't say that name. I would rather forget it." Crocea said with a controlled anger. Aux quickly realized that this was a subject that she should not bring up.

"I'm sorry, Crocea. It has been so long since then." Crocea sighed in sadness.

"Yes, I know, Aux. It may have been a long time since the war, but I will never forget it. That is something that forged me, in both fire and blood, and it is something that I can't forget. I will always remember every single human and Faunus that I fell when I was used by him. I will always appreciate when Acier took me up and used me for something that could be considered heroic."

"Well, regardless of your creation from fire and blood, you'll always be the young cocky blade that was ready for a battle, at least to me." Aux said with a melancholy tone.

"Is something wrong, Aux?" Crocea asked with concern for his friend. Aux was brought out of her melancholy and waved it off.

"I'm fine, Crocea. It's just the age catching up with me."

"There's something that you are hiding. I know that for certain." Aux chuckled at this.

"All of us are hiding something, Mors, it just depends on what your hiding that determines if what's being hidden will be told." Crocea laughed in response. This slightly confused Aux who made her concerns known. "Why are you laughing?"

"This has been the single longest conversation that we've had in years. It feels really refreshing to actually talk to someone my age." Crocea replied happily.

"Agreed. I have found the personalities of many of my coworkers to be quite extreme." Both weapons noticed that Ozpin was walking away from Jaune which slowly separated the two. "Our time's up it seems. Is there anything that you would like to say?" Aux asked. Crocea had wanted to say something about his personal feelings to the cane but he remained silent instead. It was just better to leave each other as friends. Crocea had lost too many to let someone close to him. He knew that it was something that he shared with Acier.

Instead, he would just say what he always said to the cane, "I'll see you again, Aux."

"And I, you." The sword was quickly left alone with Jaune.

"Nice conversation?" Crocea asked his partner.

"Nice conversation. It still didn't help me that much though." Jaune replied. "So when are you going to tell that cane that you like her?" A smirk graced Jaune's face when he said this. Crocea was quite surprised about this as he thought that Jaune wasn't even listening in on their conversation.

"If it comes down to it, never. She probably knows though so it isn't that necessary. Now, what are you going to do about your date tonight?" Crocea said in an effort to flip the conversation on Jaune. The lad in question became quite flustered at this.

"It's not a date. And besides, Pyrrha could choose anyone but me to go out with." Jaune just waved off quickly.

"Laddie, you're hopeless."

* * *

It was a little later when both Jaune and Pyrrha walked out into downtown Vale together. Both had gone to one of the restaurants near the docks of Vale. It was a seafood establishment that Pyrrha had gone to a few times and she found it to be quite nice. It was quiet, by the sea, and there were barely any customers who noticed her which she would have killed for back home.

As the two walked together, Pyrrha thought of what her mother was doing at home. The woman had been excited to see Pyrrha leaving home and to someplace where she could not have to deal with her fame.

"Hey, Jaune, what is your family like?" Pyrrha asked on a whim.

"Well, there's my grandpa, my mom and dad, and then there are my seven sisters." Jaune replied.

"Seems like a big family." Pyrrha remarked. Jaune snorted at this.

"When all of us were still in the house together, going to the bathroom was a nightmare. I had to either wake up early or wait in a line at the door because all of us fought for the bathroom." Jaune said fondly. "What about you, what's your family like?"

"It's just my mom. My dad died when I was young due to fighting off Grimm." Pyrrha replied with sadness. She remembered how her father would always come home and pick her up before telling her a new story. She missed those days.

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha." Jaune said.

"It's fine, Jaune. You didn't know." Pyrrha grabbed Jaune by the arm and turned him to the restaurant at the corner of the street. There it overlooked the docks of Vale and beyond that was the ocean. Inside they were greeted by an older man who showed them to a booth which had a window of the docks. Jaune too his time to order his food while Pyrrha went with what she always got at the restaurant, some cod and fries.

Jaune finally found what he wanted which entailed of fishsticks and salad. When they received their food, they thanked the waiter and then began to eat. "You know, I thought that this year would be a lot worse that it is." Jaune remarked.

"Why's that?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, first I thought that I would have to struggle my whole way through the year due to not having any training, then I thought that it would be worse due to Cardin. Both of those issues were taken care of and the final one was because I thought that none of you would accept me due to my fake transcripts." Jaune replied. Yes, it had been a few weeks since he had told the team about how he truly entered the academy…

* * *

" _I faked my transcripts." Jaune blurted out. He began breathing heavily as he finally let that secret off of his chest. It had been clawing at him during his time leading his team and even with Crocea knowing, it still felt like an act of betrayal in not telling his team._

 _Surprisingly, the first to respond to this revelation was the ever stoic Ren. "I knew it." He stated with satisfaction. This confused Jaune._

" _How did you know?" He asked._

" _Multiple things. For one: you had no fighting skills when you started out in Beacon, and another: you have shown no knowledge of what someone with a Hunter background should have. So in summary, you faked your way into Beacon." Ren said. Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune looked at Ren as if he grew a second head._

" _That is the longest that I've heard you ever speak." Jaune stated._

" _Why didn't you tell me, Renny? I thought that we told each other everything. We could have been super-secret secret keepers!" Nora said with disappointment._

" _It wasn't my secret to tell, Nora." Ren replied._

" _You're no fun. But, Jaune," Nora began before rushing up to Jaune so that he face was right next to his, "you're like, an awesome super spy with how you managed to sneak into Beacon. That it awesome!" Nora said happily._

" _I'm perfectly fine with you sneaking into Beacon." Pyrrha said._

" _But, I thought that all of you might hate me for having snuck into the school! Why aren't any of you mad? Especially you, Pyrrha." Jaune said as his brain tried to process that he actually had true friends for once that wouldn't betray him._

" _Jaune, I wouldn't ask for any other partner besides you. I am happy with how both of us became partners and would wish for nothing else." Pyrrha said with a smile. Ren walked over to Jaune and put his hand on his shoulder._

" _You are our leader no matter what. All of us are perfectly happy with you." Ren said with sincerity._

" _I would be happier if we could have a pancake day where all of us would just eat pancakes together!" Nora complained. Jaune just laughed at this which made the rest of the team smile. Eventually Jaune's laughter slowly ended before he looked at all of them with a smile_

" _All of you are the greatest friends and teammates that I could ask for." Jaune said with happiness. For once in his life, he could have friends that he could trust in and rely on. He quickly gathered all of them into a massive hug which they returned._

" _Does this mean that we can get pancakes now?" Nora asked._

* * *

"Then I'm happy that you're enjoying your time here at Beacon." Pyrrha replied with a smile.

"I'm also happy to have you as a partner. I would probably be a wreck if I didn't have you to rely on." Jaune stated. Pyrrha used one of her hands to cover her blushing face.

"You're welcome, Jaune." Pyrrha squeaked out. "I feel the same about you." Pyrrha replied in a much more collected voice. She wouldn't even dare tell Jaune how she felt. It was just too embarrassing. Jaune quickly took a breath before deciding on what he wanted to tell Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, there's something that I wanted to tell you for a while but I've just been unable to say anything…" Jaune began. He was interrupted when the sounds of multiple gunshots echoed from the docks. The duo looked at one another before they quickly got out of their booth and dropped multiple cards of lien before rushing out of the restaurant.

The partners took out their weapons and rushed to the docks where they saw a large amount of activity. "Pyrrha, when we get down there, I'll go in first and you take up a sniping position. If you need to, then come down to the ground and fight." Jaune ordered as they ran down the stairs to the docks where Jaune took a position next to one of the metal containers. He held his shield above his head and Pyrrha used it as a boost to get on top of the container.

When Jaune ran towards the sounds of conflict, he noticed two people, a man and woman in white and black uniforms with white Grimm masks on. These must be the White Fang, Jaune realized. Both were quickly taken out by two shots from Pyrrha and Jaune ran on. The sounds of multiple people screamed. Jaune guessed that some of those 'people' were actually weapons.

What he saw as he ran into a large open area was Blake Belladonna fighting with a blonde monkey Faunus with an unbuttoned shirt against a red headed man in a bowler hair who strangely enough also used a cane.

"Kill him!" Crocea screamed out. Jaune looked down at his weapon.

"What are you talking about, Crocea?" Jaune asked as this was a violence that was completely new to Jaune. He had never heard Crocea sound this angry before.

"Kill him! Don't question me! JUST! KILL! HIM!" Crocea screamed. Jaune would definitely rush in to fight this man but to just kill someone? He couldn't do that. When he saw that Blake and the blonde were pushed back by a shot of the cane to their feet, Jaune rushed in and took a swing at the man. He brought his cane up and blocked the attack but a look of surprise filled his face when he noticed the sword being used to attack him.

"Acier?" The man asked before looking down the sword and at the young man who was actually wielding it. "No, you look much more like the other Huntsman I once fought." The man mused as he blocked and dodged each slash that Jaune made at him. Each missed attack was followed by Crocea screaming.

"KILL! KILL! KILL HIM!" It hurt Jaune's ears but he had to ignore it and instead pay attention to the fight at hand.

"How do you know Acier?" Jaune asked. He didn't think that his grandpa would be related to a man with ties to the White Fang. The man smirked.

"That man has been a thorn in my side for years. Always chasing after me because I killed his son's team in an explosion and disfigured his son. I heard the man quit being a hunter after losing his arm and team. Tragedy, ain't it? Then again, a guy who quits after one bad job must be pretty weak." Jaune's eyes widened when he heard this. This was the guy that made his dad lose his arm?! Jaune felt anger course through himself as he renewed his assault on the man. "What's with the angry face? It's not like the guy was related to you?" The man said with a malicious grin.

"Shut up." Jaune said. His anger aided him in his attacks as he heard the familiar metallic clinks of blades edging up his arms, augmenting his strength. Regardless, the man kept dodging each attack and even managed to rip his shield off of his arm. Jaune swung Crocea at the man but it was blocked and both the cane and blade locked together. Jaune swung a punch at the man but he caught it in his hand.

"Ooh, it seems that I hit a soft spot there. So, kid," The man said as he leaned closer to Jaune's face, "was the Hunter who I beat your daddy?" Anger consumed Jaune as his fist became encased in blades. The man's eyes widened as he looked at the hand which was now whittling his aura down. "Well, that's new."

Jaune kicked the man's shin which caused the man to become off balance and Jaune used that to decouple their weapons. "Don't talk about my dad!" Jaune shouted while swinging his blade at the man. With no time to spare, the man blocked the sword at the last minute.

"Why's that, is it because he's a huge failure who couldn't keep a job as a Huntsman? What's he up to these days, your good ole granddad didn't tell me? Makes me think that the man jumped off the wagon." Jaune felt metal creep up his cheek.

"Shut up. Shut **UP**!" Jaune shouted. His voice took a much more metallic edge. He began swinging wildly at the man while each of his attacks were blocked. The man made it seem so easy to stop each of the attacks, but the man's arms were pretty much screaming. Each attack hit like a cannonball and the man knew that he couldn't keep this defense up for long. So, he decided to do something unconventional.

The man parried one final attack as his arms couldn't take another, jumped back from Jaune, and he quickly activated the gun portion of his cane before aiming it at Jaune's chest and firing an unstable burst of dust which quickly blew the young man into a container. "Well kid, that was fun. You're not as good as Acier though. Maybe give it a few years and you might be able to actually last a few more minutes." He quickly ran away leaving Jaune literally steaming from the blast. A few seconds later and Pyrrha ran up to Jaune.

To say she was shocked at what her partner looked like would be an understatement. Jaune's right cheek was covered in blades which extended down his and past the collar of his shirt. His entire left arm up to his bicep was also covered in blades. "Jaune! Are you alright." Pyrrha asked with worry as she transformed Milό into his sword form. She had just finished shooting each member of the White Fang that she could find in the area.

Jaune looked up at Pyrrha with an empty look in his eyes. "I lost, Pyrrha." Jaune stated with a tired voice. Pyrrha kneeled in front of Jaune.

"Losing is just a step to becoming stronger. Now you need to get up, Jaune. It seems that the White Fang is retreating in Bullheads. The others are waiting." Pyrrha then ran off to grab Jaune's shield before coming back and shrinking it down into its sheath form before sheathing Crocea. She then threw Jaune's right arm over her shoulder and helped him stand up before they began to walk out of the docks. "What happened, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"That guy is the reason that my dad lost his arm and he also killed my dad's team." Jaune replied. Pyrrha remained silent for a minute before replying.

"We'll get that man one day. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but one day." Eventually they walked out of the maze of metal containers and saw all of Team RWBY along with the blonde Faunus sitting together. The everyone besides Blade and the blonde Faunus were surprised to see the two.

"What are you two doing here?" Weiss asked. When she noticed all the pieces of metal attached to Jaune, she also asked, "What happened to your arm and face?" The group was also attracted to the new additions of Jaune's body.

"It sometimes happens when I fight. I'll see you guys at Beacon and we can try to talk about what happened down here." Jaune said as he and Pyrrha looked at one another before turning to look at the others, "We have to get dessert for our dinner, right Pyrrha?" Jaune asked with some amusement which made Pyrrha smile. Even if that man made Jaune angry, he should bring Pyrrha's mood down with his. The two then walked away from the others and Jaune looked at Pyrrha.

"So, do you know any place to get some good dessert?" Jaune asked.

"There's a nice ice-cream shop nearby."

"Perfect." Jaune stated. As they walked to the shop, Jaune and Pyrrha noticed that they were both getting a lot of looks from passersby. It quickly dawned on Jaune as to why. "Hey, Pyrrha, I think I may need your help to get all of these blades off my body." Jaune said. Pyrrha smiled at Jaune as they turned into an alley together where Jaune was lowered down with his back to the brick wall of the alley.

"Okay, this may hurt so bear with me." Pyrrha said before activating her Semblance. With a quick yank, the metal blades on Jaune's body were ripped off which caused the teen to scream in pain. "Sorry!" Pyrrha apologized quickly as she dropped all the blades into a pile on the ground.

"It's fine." Jaune hissed out as the pain eventually faded. "Now, about that ice-cream." Jaune said. He could tell Pyrrha about his feelings another day. Today was just a really bad time. Jaune was also worried about Crocea. The sword had been silent ever since the battle which was a bad sign. Only time would tell.

* * *

Qrow and Acier walked into an inn together after dealing with a few more groups of bandits which tired the two. Each was happy that they could now rest in an inn without having to deal with people who wanted to kill them. When they entered, they found a seat at a table and looked around the area. While the place had a warm feeling due to how friendly it looked, that feeling was dampened immeasurably by the rogue huntsmen and the other people who looked like they were bandits.

"Great place, Acier. Really nice how we end up in another place with people who might want to kill us." Qrow sarcastically complimented before removing his flask from his pocket and taking a swig.

"Bite me. Would you like to be sleeping out in the cold woods, because I certainly don't." Acier replied.

"Whatever. They better have good whiskey here or else I'll-" Qrow's tangent was interrupted by a sultry voice.

"Hello sirs, would you like me to bring you anything to drink?" A woman with a beautiful face and shoulder length hair asked. What made Qrow's jaw drop was not the fact that this woman was extremely beautiful, no, what made his jaw drop was how the innkeeper wore an outfit consisting of black and white that had one of the shortest skirts that Qrow had ever seen.

"Yes miss, get my young friend some whiskey and I'll have rum." Acier replied with a smile. The woman nodded with a smile and looked at Qrow before giving him a wink. She then walked away with a sway in her step. "Brat, I hope you understand that woman like it when a young man doesn't keep their jaw dropped like a horny dog." Qrow didn't respond, "Qrow?" Acier asked while shaking the younger Huntsman. Eventually he snapped out of his stupor and looked at Acier.

"I found a new reason to love this inn. Along with Mistral." Eventually the drinks were brought to the two by the innkeeper who had the same smile from before.

"Here are your drinks, sirs." Then she took out a piece of paper and put it on the table before sliding it over to Qrow. "And that is for you." Then she walked away. Quickly Qrow fumbled through his pockets until he got his Scroll and snapped a picture of the woman.

"You're just like a horny puppy." Acier said.

"I love miniskirts!" Qrow stated with happiness.

* * *

 **And that's it for this chapter. Finally finished Volume one and now we are off to Volume two with its beginnings of a conspiracy or something, awkward teenage romance fueled by hormones and insecurities, old people being awesome, and MINISKIRTS.**

 **Oh, and we have Crocea's dark muddled past of blood and rage along with Jaune's body sword issues. And people thought that having acne when you were a teen was awkward.**

 **Now then, for the other story that you all were waiting for…Coffee Horror Story!**

* * *

Pyrrha found it quite odd when she entered her classroom with her team. Apparently professor Goodwitch had become a coffee connoisseur as she had a huge pot in the classroom and was apparently offering it to all of the students. While many of the students took the offered coffee, Pyrrha and her team along with Ruby and Yang had declined on the offer.

"Students now that you have finished your coffee, you'll soon…be one of us!" Goodwitch shouted. The students began looking at each other in confusion before those that drank the coffee collapsed onto the ground while their limps moved around spastically. Goodwitch smiled in amusement at this while Ruby, Yang, and Team JNPR looked on in horror.

"What is happening!" Yang asked in shock.

"The revolution. Now it will begin. You'll all be one of us soon. Join us." Goodwitch said as brown sludge dripped from her mouth. The group of teens began backing away until they quickly started into a full blown sprint. Goodwitch used her immense speed though to grab Yang as they all ran away. Eventually when they left the room, they ran to their dorms where upon Ruby realized that Yang was missing.

"Where's Yang?!" Ruby asked with fear.

"They've got her now." Ren replied.

"But we need to go after her!" Ruby shouted. Ren smacked her a few times in the face.

"Get ahold of yourself." Ren said calmly. He turned to Jaune before asking, "What do we do now, Jaune?"

"We need to get out of Beacon first of all. Then after that, we warn everyone else. I think that we should steal a bulkhead. Anyone have an issue with that?" Jaune asked. Everyone shook their heads.

"Then let's go!"

* * *

 **And that's a wrap. Well, in three days I head off to college so this will be my chapter beforehand. I hoped you enjoyed it. Stay frosty my friends.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Twelve: Fun Times at Training Camp**

* * *

It had been a week since the battle on the docks and Jaune was no closer to learning anything about Roman Torchwick's whereabouts. It didn't help that during this time, Crocea had been much more sullen and quiet than usual. Today would be starting up the first day of the two week break before classes started up again. This would be followed by an influx of students from other schools who would be coming to Beacon in order to participate in the Vytal Tournament. This would also be the day that Jaune's grandfather, Acier, would be visiting in order to pick him up for what he called a 'training trip' which was available for his whole team to join in on as well.

His team had happily agreed to it as Nora and Ren had nothing better to do, and Pyrrha wanted to hang out with her friends. This was why the quartet stood at the landing pads for the airships since Acier would be picking them all up together. Jaune looked over at Nora and Ren. Ren had packed with functionality in mind which countered Nora whose backpack was bulging with items. Pyrrha had followed suit with Ren's style of packing.

Jaune felt the weight of his bag on his shoulders which was slightly heavy. He had packed all the essentials, clothes, food, water, flashlight, etc. which made him feel quite prepared to take on anything that his gramps would throw at him. Even Crocea was slightly lifted out of his lowered spirits at the knowledge of meeting up with his previous owner.

"Hey, Jaune, I think I see the ship that your grandfather's on." Pyrrha stated while looking into the horizon. As she said this, what looked like an armored bullhead streamed through the sky and towards the landing platforms.

"At least he is on time." Jaune replied. He felt excited at seeing his grandfather after so long, but he also felt nervous as to what his grandfather would have them all be doing on their two-week break. Eventually the ship began making a bombing motion towards the landing pad which made the team immediately run away from the area.

Their fear was not unfounded as the ship smashed against the concrete flooring and skidded a few feet past the landing pad. Guess that was what the armor on the ship was for. The teens eventually got up and witnessed the side door of the craft open with a hiss. Smoke bellowed out along with a string of curses.

"Dammit, Steven, this happens almost everytime! Why can't you fly this ship correctly!?" Acier shouted as he stepped out of the steaming ship with a couple of coughs.

"I'm flyin' it as correctly as ah' bloody feel like it, ya shitwaffle!" The voice of another man growled out. Acier sighed before turning his attention to the group of teens before him. He scanned each of them before looking at Jaune with a smile.

"Jaune! How are you doing? It has been a long while since I last saw you." Acier said as he walked up to Jaune and ruffled his hair. When this happened, Jaune could swear that he heard a whispering from his grandfather's hand.

"Fine, gramps. Could you tell me why your ship crashed?" Jaune asked as he leaned over Acier's shoulder to look at the steaming vehicle. Acier shrugged.

"My pilot is terrible." Acier simply replied which made Milό sigh in annoyance.

"Is this really the best that you can do? I would think that we could at least have someone with some sort of competence fly us around. Too much to hope for, I guess." Milό said.

"Oh quiet you. Steven is great in situations which don't involve landing." Crocea replied to the younger weapon with much less hostility. Actually, Jaune noticed, the blade had been much cheerful and had actually spoken more than one word in a sentence! Guess Crocea was happy to see Acier as well.

"If you are Jaune's grampa, then does that mean that you are super cool and everything?! Where are we going? Will we fight a lot of Grimm?" Nora asked, bombarding the older Arc with questions. Acier just looked the teen up and down before looking at Jaune from the corner of his eye.

"I take it that this would be Nora." Acier said. Jaune nodded. "Well then, I've heard a lot about you, Nora. You've certainly got a massive hammer." Nora nodded excitedly. Acier looked at the next person in line. "You're Ren, correct?" Ren nodded but remained silent. "Well, aren't you talkative." Finally, Acier moved up to Pyrrha. "You're Pyrrha."

"Yes I am."

"Great. By the way, hate the cereal that you're on. Tastes like cardboard." Pyrrha slightly blushed at this. She didn't really like bringing up the fact that she was Pumpkin Pete's spokeswoman. It was embarrassing. Acier then clapped his hands together. "Now kids, ready to get dangerous?" Nora cheered at this. The other teens looked at each other before becoming resolved and nodding at the older man.

"Time to get on the ship. Come along." Acier walked into the opened door of the Bullhead and the rest of the teens followed. As they did this, Jaune could swear that the weapon that his grandfather was wearing was whispering to him disturbing phrases.

" _Kill, die, die, die, I will eat your souls and devour your families!_ " In Jaune's personal opinion, he would stay as far away as he could from that weapon. It would probably be best for his mental health if he did so. The group quickly made it onto the ship and that was when Acier ordered Steven to take off.

With the doors closing, the ship began shaking before quickly flying up into the air. "I would recommend that all of you find something to grab onto." Acier recommended while grabbing the handle above his head.

"Why?" All the teens but Nora asked.

Their question was answered quite quickly when the Bullhead took off quickly which launched the teens off their feet, causing all of them to land in a heap on top of one another. "Told you." Acier said while laughing.

"I'm already starting to hate this trip." Jaune moaned from under the pile. The teens pulled themselves off one another, and just when they were finished steadying themselves, another sharp turn caused them all to collapse upon one another once again.

"I'm beginning to see a pattern here." Ren said.

"Always hated Steven's flying." Crocea stated. "He used to be much worse."

"How? This is pretty bad flying. Any worse and we'd be crashing." Jaune replied.

"I'd agree with waste-of-skin. With this flying, we're probably going to be melted to scrap in a massive explosion." Milό said.

"At least you can agree with something." Crocea said.

"I ENJOY THIS RIDE! IT IS FUN!" Magnhild stated with glee in his voice.

"Please stop-"

"-because this is absolutely-"

"-terrifying." Storm Flower said. Their owners appeared to show the same concerns as well. Jaune took this in stride as he tried to keep himself from vomiting all over the floor. All these maneuvers were causing his stomach to flop about. If he didn't find a way to distract himself, then he'd be covered in vomit for the rest of the ride.

"Gramps, what are we doing for our training trip?" Jaune quickly asked before turning to Acier who grinned.

"Well, I am getting us dropped off a bit away from civilization. From there, we'll be making our way through a Grimm infested forest to village that Steven will be waiting for us in. It is quite simple, and it'll be fun." Acier said excitedly.

"I think our definitions of fun are quite different."

"Acier, I've almost approached the drop site. I'll get'cha there an then I'll meet'cha at Vermillion Village." Steven said over the intercom.

"Great. Well kids, I hope that you're all ready, cause we are about to deal with a lot of Grimm." The teens were unable to answer as the bulkhead made a nosedive which caused the teens to press up against the wall. When the inevitable crash happened, the teens were bounced off the metal floor and into the ceiling before falling back down once more. The side doors opened up and Acier calmly walked out. He was followed by JNPR a moment later after all the teens had managed to untangle themselves.

"Mr. Arc, could we please not go onto that Bullhead if it's piloted by Steven again?" Pyrrha asked. Acier shook his head.

"Sorry, but he's the only person that I could get who had free time off to pilot. You're just going to have to get used to him. I know I have." Acier then waved his hand and the Bullhead took off quickly, leaving the group stranded in the forest. Acier turned to look at the teens with a grin. "Hello, great to see that you all survived our first step of the journey. Now here comes the second!" Acier quickly turned around and punched his gauntleted hand into the head of a Ursa which had run out of the woods from behind him.

And audible crunch could be head as the bear Grimm collapsed onto the ground. "Kids, prepare yourselves. The horde is coming." Acier said darkly. The gauntlet on his arm quickly grew before covering the rest of his arm in armored plates. The finger grew into foot long talons. Team JNPR quickly let their packs fall to the ground before they drew their weapons out.

Around them, the growling of the Grimm grew louder while the trees and bushes shook with movement. "How many are here?" Jaune asked nervously.

"Enough to deal with. Now, today will be a good learning experience for all of you. I'm going to assume that most of you have never dealt with a hoard before. They are quite fickle bunch. The way you know what you're dealing with is easy, they'll send the scouts first." The rustling of the forest eventually stopped. This put the teens on edge as the went back to back with one another.

Then two Beowolves jumped out from the bushes and charged at the teens. Two of them were dispatched quickly by Nora shooting a grenade at them. The third was killed through a combined strike of Jaune and Pyrrha. "A quick tip for you, try to avoid showing too much of your skill to a hoard. The older Grimm will learn quickly on how to counter you otherwise." A loud hissing could be heard when Acier said this.

"That would be the part where I get involved. Kids, take on the small fry. I'll deal with the King." With that, Acier charged off into the woods to where the hissing came from. As he did so, multiple Beowolves came charging at the group. With trained ease, the group began dispatching the Grimm that came for them. As the battle continued on, the team could hear the large battle between Acier and the King Taijitu that was occurring out of sight. Jaune felt worried for his grandfather but he knew that he couldn't do anything with the battle happening around him.

It was at that point that the Grimm started coming less and less which brightened the spirits of the team. "Yeah, we're winning!" Nora shouted. Jaune smiled at his teammate's optimism as he ducked under the strike of a Beowolf and thrust Crocea up through the bottom of the Grimm's jaw.

"Duck, lad." Crocea said. Jaune did so and found a paw swiping at where his head was once before.

"Thanks, Crocea." Jaune said as he ripped the blade out from the decaying Grimm and sliced his blade into the Beowolf next to him which decapitated said creature. It was at this point that only three Beowolves were left. All of them ran off into the woods only to whine in pain. From the woods came Acier grinning broadly.

"Well, that was simple. How are all of you kids doing?" Acier asked.

"We're still alive, aren't we?" Jaune asked.

"Great! This was a learning experience for all of you. Seeing hoards like these are usually indicative that something bad has happened recently and the darker emotions from that attracted the Grimm. That leads into another tip that I'm going to give all of you." Acier walked closer until her was right in front of the teens. "Try to think happy thoughts if you are going off on your own into the woods like this. While some may laugh, it is the difference between surviving or dying from Grimm attracted to your location."

"A lot of rookies that I've seen in the field have fallen prey to overwhelming amounts of Grimm due to being unable to let go of any anger that they were feeling. The only ones who would ever dare enter a forest like this completely angry would be veterans who can take care of the constant assaults of Grimm." Acier finished. "Now then, this area should be safe for a day or so as Grimm will try to avoid this spot until they gain more allies. I'll grab some firewood." With that, Acier left the group to setting up the tents.

After puzzling through the tents, the teens sat down and rested. "Lad…" Jaune looked down at Crocea with some happiness, it was good to see the sword talking once more, "You did well today."

"At least you're talking again. Why were you so quiet for the past weeks?" Jaune asked.

Crocea paused at this question before answering, "I was angry…"

"At me?"

"No, I was angry at myself. I was there when your father's team was killed by that man. I saw your father lose his arm and I was completely unable to do a single thing to stop it. I was useless, and it hurt me. Jaune, do you know what I fear most?" Jaune was surprised at where this subject was going.

"What?"

"I fear becoming useless, obsolete. I have had to deal with that question hanging over my head for years if I would just be tossed away due to Acier or your father dying and then being forgotten in the field. It scares me more than you think." Crocea finished. Jaune just put his hand onto his weapon's hilt.

"Well, you're my partner. I'm never going to throw you away, so never think that. Besides, who else would help me with all of my battles?" Jaune playfully asked.

"I guess you're right, lad." Crocea said with some audible happiness.

"Wow, that is just so sappy. It's like watching a romantic comedy with you two!" Milό said. Jaune turned to look at the weapon which had been stabbed into the ground next to Pyrrha.

"I will make you eat those words you shiny shit!" Crocea screamed.

"Like you could move your ass over here to do so, old man!" Milό said smugly.

"You wanna go? I'm ready to throw down!" Crocea replied.

"CAN MAGNHILD JOIN IN!? FIGHTING SOUNDS LIKE FUN!" Magnhild shouted out.

"Maybe we should all-"

"-just calm down?" Storm Flower asked.

"COME ON GIRLS, WE MUST DEFEND OUR HONOR OF FIGHTING, BY FIGHTING RED BLADE!"

Jaune and Crocea chuckled together at the antics of the weapons. It was at this point that Acier came back to the camp with a bundle of firewood under his arm. "Got the wood. Now how about we make some Dinner?"

* * *

The group had bowls of soup in hand as they listened to Acier tell tales about his youth. The sun had gone down until the sky was only that of stars and the shattered moon. "It was at this point that I had to sneak around in just a towel as the enemy had managed to catch all of us off-guard at our base. So, during the fight, someone managed to hack off the towel I was wearing…"

"You didn't?" Pyrrha asked with a smile. Nora was trying to stifle her laughter at this and Ren and Jaune were smiling.

"Oh yes I did. And you know what? After the battle, I was referred to as Tri-pod for a very long time. It gets really embarrassing when I get called that in public. If it's at a bar, then I'm willing to look the other way since it gets me the girls." Acier replied. The group began laughing at this.

"Did you even bother to get pants afterwards?" Nora asked.

"I had to walk all the way back to where I had left my clothes before I could get my pants back. I didn't wish to take the pants of any dead man as those clothes tend to get ruined it you leave them on the bodies for long enough. It was a reckoning of the pants for me. So, what about you kids? Any interesting stories?" Acier asked as he leaned back into a log.

"Well, we did fight a Nevermore on our initiation day." Nora replied which made Acier grin.

"Now this is interesting. Why didn't you tell me anything about this, Jaune? I would've loved to hear all about it." Acier asked.

"Well, it just never came up." Jaune replied.

"Yeah, you should've seen us! Jaune was leading us in combat and telling us what to do. Then, our friend Ruby made the final blow by chopping the Nevermore's head off! Oh, and Jaune learned what his Semblance was on that day!" Nora summed up with excitement. Acier gave Jaune a happy smile full of pride.

"I see that you've been doing very well at Beacon. Tell me, what is your Semblance?" Acier asked Jaune.

"I can-I can talk to weapons." Jaune said. This cause Acier to raise an eyebrow. "It was weird at first, but I eventually got used to it. For instance, Crocea has told me a bit about you. Though a lot of it is a little disgusting." Jaune said while glaring at the blade.

"Hey, I'm only trying to teach you about the world and its ways." Crocea retorted.

"You certainly are very much like your father. He had a Semblance that was also related to weapons as well." This cause Jaune to perk up at this.

"What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked.

"Or had the ability to be able to pick up any weapon and immediately gain the skill of previous users of that weapon. Made him a monster in battle if he picked up a really old weapon. He truly was a rising star until he decided to quit being a Huntsman." Acier finished with some sadness.

"Why did Jaune's dad quit being a Huntsman?" Nora asked.

Acier looked at Jaune with a silent question in his eyes. Jaune nodded and Acier continued, "Many years ago, Or and his team were called up to take a look at a warehouse that had multiple rumors of stolen Dust shipments inside of it. During the mission, they entered into the warehouse and were quickly ambushed by a man named Roman Torchwick who dropped a bomb into the middle of the warehouse. Or lost his arm. His team lost their lives." Nora audibly gasped at this while Ren showed some sign of discomfort.

"After that, Or quit being a Huntsman. He just couldn't handle the loss and took up the profession of a baker with his wife. Then seven kids later, and Jaune was finally born. And now we are right here." Acier sighed before continuing, "I've been hunting Torchwick for years. But the man just keeps eluding me, much to my annoyance."

This made Jaune speak up, "Gramps, I encountered Torchwick two weeks ago. I lost to him…" Acier looked at Jaune with surprise.

"Where did you see him?" Acier asked.

"Pyrrha and I saw him down at the docks in Vale. I fought him by myself and he beat me before running off with the White Fang." Jaune said. Acier looked down into the campfire and poked at it with a stick.

"Then this is very enlightening. All I heard of him recently was that he robbed a Dust store in Vale and then he disappeared off the map." Acier stated. "If he's working for the White Fang, then things are going to become very dangerous. I've encountered the White Fang on a few of my journeys. We clashed and I got out alive each time. The problem with the group right now compared to when they first were peaceful, is that the hatred they have for humanity in general usually attracts Grimm to an area like a beacon."

Acier sighed before looking at each of the teens. "I'm going to tell you something that I don't want any of you to tell your teachers or your parents. They would try to coddle you and protect you from the darkness of the world, I won't do that. What I'm telling you now is that the world is changing. You might see the superficial effects from news reports about violence occurring around Remnant. What you haven't seen, and what the adults around you won't say, is that Grimm activity has grown. It is almost as if they are waiting for something to happen, biding their time."

"Then what does that mean for us?" Pyrrha asked.

"There is a war coming. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But trust me, there will come a time when a call will come for each of you. It is up to all of you if you decide to answer it. And while those forces of darkness will try to tear each of you apart. The only way that you will conquer that darkness is if you stick together and support one another." Acier stood up and walked away from the teens in order to leave them all to their thoughts.

As Acier walked into the woods, he looked up at the broken moon shining in the sky. The world was coming to a head of untold violence. He had seen creatures emerging which he had no name for, and he had either fought them, or run for his life. This was difficult, almost as difficult as when he had to fight in the Great war. And unlike then, the people of today were not ready for a battle like this.

"Damn you. Damn you, Salem." Acier said to the sky. He remembered the fight he and multiple other had had with the woman. He had been unable to get near her due to the multiple massive Grimm which he had to fight against. He tried to forget that day, it just brought bad memories.

With team JNPR, they sat together thinking about what Acier had told them. "Guys, should we be worried about what Acier said?" Nora asked.

"Yes, Nora. It seems that things are changing. Maybe not for the better or worse. But change happens." Ren replied.

"WE GET TO FIGHT IN BIG BATTLE! I WILL ENJOY THIS!" Magnhild announced.

"It doesn't matter." Jaune said, "We'll be there if anything bad happens. If we stick together, then there's nothing that can take us on."

"You are certainly right about that. It is a matter of if we can challenge and defeat the enemies that are going to be set upon us. I believe that we can do so." Pyrrha said with a smile. Jaune nodded and looked back to the fire which was steadily dying.

"I think that I'm going to bed." Jaune announced. As he said this, he unclipped Crocea and his sheath from his belt before stabbing both into the ground next to the other weapons. Then he headed to one of the three tents that had been set up. Two were meant for the partners of Team JNPR, one was meant for his grandfather.

Jaune headed to the first one and let himself collapse onto the floor of the tent while he maneuvered to a more comfortable position. It was at this point that Pyrrha joined him in the tent and took the other side before lying down on her back.

"Pyrrha, I'm a little worried." Jaune said.

"What about?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm worried that I'll fail to be a good leader and that our team will suffer for it." Jaune replied. Pyrrha lightly laughed at this which confused Jaune. "What's so funny?"

"That you think that you're a bad leader. You're a great leader, Jaune. There is no one else who our team would have besides you. Pyrrha looked at Jaune, "And no matter what, Jaune, I-we'll stand by any decision that you'll make." Pyrrha said while she grasped Jaune's hand.

"Pyrrha, thank you. For everything. If I didn't have you guys, then I don't know what I'd do." The two teammates looked at each other, both studying the other's partially obscured features in the darkness of the tent.

The two felt much closer to one another after this talk, and they remained silent as they eventually succumbed to sleep with the words of the other ringing in their mind.

* * *

It had been three days since the team and Acier had been dropped off into the forest. Since then, they had encounter three packs of Grimm which they had completely annihilated. As they traveled, Acier told them stories of his time as a Huntsman. It was something that managed to instill a certain type of calm among the group which was greatly appreciated.

"So, gramps, where are we compare to Vermillion Village?" Jaune asked.

"About one mile away. We could make it in about ten to fifteen minutes if we decided to run the whole way there, but I'd rather have us conserve our strength, so it'll probably take about a half hour Acier replied.

"Forget I asked." Jaune complained. He felt a pat on his back which came from Nora.

"Cheer up, Jaune, a little walking never killed anyone. Well, except for the people who get mauled by Grimm. Then walking killed them. But we have weapons so we should be pretty good." Nora said in an effort to cheer Jaune up.

"Makes me feel so much better." Jaune replied sarcastically.

"That's great to hear!"

"YES, AND MAYBE WE GET TO KILL BIG GRIMM! OR EVEN GRIMM BEARS!" Magnhild shouted excitedly.

"Calm yourself, hot head. You might not get tired, but our partners do." Crocea stated.

"It appears that-"

"another group of-"

"Grimm is approaching. Be prepared, Jaune." Storm Flower answered. Jaune's eyes widened as he pulled Crocea from his sheath. The other, seeing their leader do so, pulled out their weapons as well. Then the group of Grimm came and attacked.

The group of humans held the Grimm back and Jaune noticed how he had actually grown better over this training trip. His movements were much more conserved due to him learning through trial and error during Grimm attacks like this that there were better ways for him to use his energy.

Jaune ducked under an Ursa's paw and made a stab at the underside of its jaw. The creature made a scream as Crocea went up through its jaw and into its brain, killing it instantly. "To the left, lad!" Crocea shouted. Jaune raised his shield which deflected an Ursa's paw, and Jaune sliced the offending limb off. "Duck!"

Jaune dropped underneath the Ursa's other paw and popped right back up to slice off the neck of the Grimm. Jaune didn't see any other Grimm coming for him as he turned to look back at his teammates who were already sheathing their weapons.

"We did it!" Nora announced.

"Yes we did." Ren stated simply.

"You kids are certainly holding up quite well. I reckon that those are probably the last pack we'll be seeing anytime soon. We can probably run our way to the village now." Acier said. The teens sheathed their weapons, and the group quickly took off at a sprint for the village. Ten minutes of managing their way through the growth of the forest and the group made it to the walls of a large village. From where the group was standing, they could see a large bell tower in the center of this village.

The group quickly approached the village and saw a guard in a set of scratched and faded silver armor. "Hey Lupin. How are you today?" Acier asked the guard.

"There have been no attacks lately. And a Bullhead crashed into the center of town with Steven piloting. My only question is this: really?" Lupin asked.

"He was the only pilot I could get on short time notice." Acier replied.

"You could've hired someone."

"He was the only pilot that I could get for cheap." Lupin sighed at Acier's reasoning before letting the group pass by into the village. For a village located far away from a kingdom, it seemed like it was absolutely thriving. There were people walking in the streets and into shops. It seemed peaceful.

"Now kids, I think that our trip has earned you all a little time to have some fun. Meet back up at the bell tower in about an hour. Other than that, enjoy yourselves." Acier said before leaving the teens to their own devices.

"Dibs on Ren!" Nora shouted before dragging Ren off with her. Jaune and Pyrrha laughed at their friend's antics. Then the two began walking around the village. The first shop that the two visited was a clothing shop. When the two entered, they were greeted by an old man with a large mustache.

"Hello, welcome! Come and check my wares!" The man announced with a friendly smile. The two teens obliged themselves and looked around. Jaune looked at a few of the clothes that the man was selling and yet he found nothing of interest. As he turned around, he saw Pyrrha entering the changing room with a handful of clothes that she had found.

Jaune smiled before he walked over to the front of the changing room. A few minutes later and Pyrrha walked out in an outfit that consisted mainly of a bronze long-sleeved dress with a slit up the right leg. Around her neck was a short red scarf. The only pieces of her original clothes that remained was her bronze armored heels as her circlet was gone and her hair that had been bound in a ponytail was now loose and flowing.

Pyrrha looked like a completely different person to Jaune.

"How do I look?" Pyrrha asked nervously. Jaune felt a little self-conscious at how at this moment, Pyrrha looked truly beautiful.

"Y-you look great." Jaune replied while his face began to blush.

"Thank you." Pyrrha replied, "I didn't know if this would work for me. Now I do." Pyrrha replied with a smile before heading back into the changing room. She came out once again in sleeveless red dress with a scandalous slit up each side of the leg. Jaune's eyes widned at this. "What about this?" Pyrrha asked.

"Y-you look amazing." Jaune replied as he began to fully blush. Pyrrha nodded with a massive smile before heading back into the changing room. Jaune just sighed to himself.

"Lad, you realize that she likes you, right?" Crocea asked. Jaune looked down at his weapon with a questioning look.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"You are truly oblivious. The lass is picking out clothes that she thinks that you would like. If I didn't know what your family was like, then I would swear that you're acting oblivious on purpose. Just go talk to the lass and stop acting like a pansy."

"But-"

"No buts, you like the lass, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Again, no buts. You like her, she likes you. Try and ask her out the next time she talks to you. And not as friends like you did last time. An actual date." Crocea ordered.

"Fine." Jaune said knowing that this was a losing battle against the strong-willed sword. "I'll ask her out. But you better be right about her liking me." Jaune said before the door to the changing room opened once more to reveal Pyrrha in her normal clothes. The clothes that she liked were being held in her arm as she walked to the register.

After paying for the clothes, the two left the shop and walked to the next shop which contained various weapons. "Pyrrha, I don't think that it's a good idea if I go in there." Jaune could already hear the large amounts of shouting coming from the weapons in that shop.

"It's fine, Jaune. I understand." Pyrrha replied as she quickly realized how much of a pain it would be for Jaune to enter a place like that. The two continued on looking through each of the shops until they headed for the bell tower.

The two say the crashed Bullhead in the ground, and Acier leaning against the side of it. Next to him were Ren and Nora. The two had also gone shopping but in a different way. Ren had gotten some food, while Nora was eating from a bag of candy.

"Hello you two! Enjoy yourselves?" Acier asked. The two nodded. "Great, then it's time for us to leave for our next stop! Cedar Town!" Acier announced. "Hop on in!" Acier said as he entered the Bullhead. The teens groaned as they entered what could have been considered a death trap. The doors closed behind them and the teens grabbed onto anything bolted down in an effort to protect themselves.

With a scream from the group, the Bullhead took off to their next destination.

* * *

 **It certainly has been a long time. And my only excuse for the delay in this chapter would be due to both college, and the fact that I've been working on other projects. They took my mind from this for a while. But now, I'm back! One chapter left before we enter into Volume 2.**

 **I hope you all can wait for that next chapter, and I hoped that all of you had a good Thanksgiving. If you didn't celebrate the holiday, then I hope that all of you had a good yesterday. Anyways, next time we'll see what Acier has in store for the group.**

 **Stay frosty my friends!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Thirteen: Vacation in the Lion's Den Part I**

* * *

The group screamed as they flew through the air in the metal deathtrap that was a Bullhead. Acier just laughed at the group's terror as they were jostled throughout the cabin until finally they slammed into the ground due to the Bullhead finally stopping. Jaune was the first to pull himself off the ground before he helped Pyrrha up next. Ren and Nora followed quickly afterwards.

"I will admit lad, Steven is a terrible pilot who I regret Acier meeting all those years ago." Crocea stated. Jaune just popped his back and rolled his shoulders to get all the kinks out of them.

"Doesn't help that each time we fly up in the guy's murder machine, all of us feel sore afterwards." Jaune replied.

"THAT WAS FUN! LET'S FLY AGAIN!" Magnhild screamed out in excitement.

"Alright kids, we made it to our newest destination. We'll be spending the rest of our time here training all of you into shape." Acier announced.

"Where are we, Mr. Arc?" Pyrrha asked. Acier smiled at this before pressing a button on the side of the door. When he did so, the door slid open to reveal a plain of grass that covered as far as they could see. There were some hills that changed up the landscape, but other than that, it provided very little cover.

"This place is known by the people who come here as Grimgrass. A little bit of hell placed out in the middle of nowhere. You'll never find a more harsher terrain that will want to do everything it can to kill you than this one place. We'll be spending our time surviving out here since if you can survive out here for a week, then you can survive anywhere." Team JNPR looked at the man as if he was insane.

"Do you want to kill us?" Ren asked with wide eyes. Acier just patted Ren on the back.

"Nah. But this place will. Now, I'd recommend that all of you leave anything that won't help you fight onto the Bullhead." When the teens followed Acier's orders, the old man then stepped off the Bullhead and was quickly followed by Team JNPR. Behind them, the door shut and the Bullhead quickly took off leaving the group behind.

Acier turned around to the team and grinned, "Now, Steven has orders not to come back here until the seventh day. We'll be surviving out here until then with our wits and strength. And I'll be giving all of you a little history lesson about this place. Where we stand right now was once the place of one of the largest battles during the great war. I was one of the soldiers that fought here during that war, and let me tell all of you, "Acier leaned in closer to the group, "war is hell."

Acier pulled himself back before once more speaking, "Due to the large battle, the Grimm found this place a suitable habitat to live and thrive in. Can any of you see any Grimm out here?" Acier asked. The teens looked around the plains and found nothing indicating Grimm presence. They all shook their heads in reply, "That would be due to how the Grimm adapted and evolved to this place. Right now, you'll rarely see any unless they are about to pounce on you. Some are in the tall grass while others are living underground. And no, we still don't have any names for them."

"Gramps, how do you expect us to survive out here with no food or water? I can't see anything the we could eat or drink from." Jaune asked nervously. "And what do you mean there are Grimm that live underground?"

"Good question. There are multiple Grimm that build trapdoors to their underground lairs that they use as camouflage. The minute that they see any viable prey, namely us, they quickly reach out from the trap door and drag their prey inside. Safety tip, stay away from any miscolored patch of land, or any bumps in the ground that could look like they would fit you inside." Acier finished.

"This place brings back memories, lad. I feel so nostalgic being here." Crocea told Jaune.

"I feel horrified, so our opinions differ majorly." Jaune replied as he tried to control his extremely fast beating heart.

"I strangely find myself agreeing with you, waste-of-skin. This is an extremely bad place to find oneself by accident. Apparently, your idiot grandfather wishes for us to die on purpose." Milό stated.

"Shut up, Milό" Jaune replied quietly.

"YES, BE QUIET! THIS PLACE WILL BE EXCELLENT IN STRENGTHING OURSELF AND CRUSHING SKULLS OF OUR ENEMIES BENEATH OUR FEET!" Magnhild stated.

"Technically, you-"

"Don't have feet." StormFlower stated.

"NORA DOES WHICH MEAN I DO!" Jaune's eyebrow raised at hearing this.

"That makes no probable sense you buffoon." Milό replied. Jaune looked down at Crocea and got the feeling that even the sword was having trouble with following what was going on. Jaune was shaken out of his thoughts by Pyrrha which caused the blonde to look up at the redhead.

"What is it, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked his partner.

"We are leaving." Jaune looked at the rest of the group to see that they were already starting to take off without him.

"Oh. Let's catch up then." Jaune replied and the partners ran after the group. When the two had caught up to the group, they were all quickly stopped by Acier in front of a large patch of dirt. "What is it?" Jaune asked.

"This would be one of the Grimm that I was talking about." Acier looked at the ground before finding a decent sized rocked and lifted it off the ground. He then tossed it out into the middle of the patch of ground, and in just a moment, what looked like a hatch swung open from the ground and eight glowing red eyes along with two hairy insectoid legs reached out to grab any potential prey before going back into the hatch which quickly closed after the Grimm.

"What the hell?!" The teens shouted.

"That would be what I was talking about. Notice anything about the hatch where that Grimm popped out of?" The teens looked at the hatch and noticed how while the dirt surrounding the hatch was very dark, the hatch itself had a much lighter coloring of dirt. Possibly due to drying out in the sun. "You need to look for hatches like this in any part of the ground that's just dirt. It'll save your lives one day. Now let's march, where we want to get is better reached in the daytime than that of the night."

"Ren, I really don't like those Grimm." Nora stated with some slight fear at the Grimm.

"Neither do I." Ren replied. Jaune was slightly surprised at how Nora could be afraid of something. Then again, there was something in the world that could always scare someone. Guess this Grimm was that for Nora. Even Jaune was creeped out by the Grimm. As the group continued to walk through the plains, Jaune noticed a slight ridge about a mile ahead that they were walking to.

"What's that ahead?" Jaune asked.

"That would be where we are heading." As Acier said this, Pyrrha tripped over something in the grass which caused the group to stop. "You okay there, Pyrrha?" Acier asked.

"Yes. I just tripped over something." When Pyrrha got off the ground, she looked down to see that she tripped over something metallic. She reached down, and with a grunt, she pulled a tomahawk from the ground.

"FREEDOM! IT'S FEELS SO GOOD TO BE IN THE SUN!" The tomahawk shouted which caused Jaune to clap his hands over his ears. The tomahawk calmed down slightly before asking, "What year is it? Did we win?" The tomahawk asked the weapons in the group.

"Rips? Is that you?" Crocea asked amazed.

"Crocea? Holy shit, You're here?! And who the hell is wearing you? Where's Acier? Please tell me that the guy is still alive." Rips asked.

"Yeah, Acier is the old guy of this group. The lad who's side I'm at right now is Acier's grandson, Jaune." Crocea replied.

"Damn, if that's how old Acier looks now, then how long has it been since the war? Tell me it ended, please."

"Indeed, it has. The war ended about eighty years ago with Vale and Vacuo winning the war. Ever since then, there has been peace between all the kingdoms. It really has been too long my friend. I thought that I would never see you again after Desmond died." Crocea said with relief.

"That was a bad day, friend. Still, if you are going anywhere, could you take me with you? I do not wish to remain here in this battlefield rusting." Rips begged.

"Jaune, please take Rips with you. He's a dear friend who I wish to not leave behind." Crocea begged. Jaune nodded at this and looked at Pyrrha.

"Could you hand me that weapon?" Pyrrha replied to his request by handing the dirt covered weapon which Jaune took gently in his hands. The tomahawk was covered in a layer of mud that Jaune began brushing off as best as he could. When he felt that the tomahawk was cleaned thoroughly enough, Jaune shoved the handle into his belt.

"Thank you, boy. I promise that until the day I rust away, I'll stay a firm weapon by your side against all of you enemies!" Rips swore. Jaune felt mildly embarrassed at the treatment that he was getting from Rips, but he tried to shove that embarrassment down and ignore it. From what he remembered from Crocea, a weapon getting forgotten in a battlefield was a complete nightmare, so what did that say about Rips who had been left in these plains for over eighty years?

And to add to that, how many other weapons were still lying out in these plains, having given up hope on ever leaving this mass grave? It was a terrifying thought to Jaune that he'd rather try to ignore, if only due to how he knew that he couldn't save everyone. "What do you have there, Jaune?" Acier asked.

"A tomahawk named Rips. It used to be owned by a guy named Desmond." Jaune replied. Acier chuckled at this. "What's so funny?"

"I haven't thought about my old squad in a long time. During the war, our numbers slowly dwindled until it was just Desmond and I. Then Desmond was killed and I was the last one to make it out of the war alive. Thankfully I did or you'd have never been born. I'm really just amazed that we are at the spot where Desmond died." Acier replied.

"Would you like for us to wait here while you pay your respects?" Ren piped up, much to the surprise of Jaune and Pyrrha.

"No. I rather try not to linger over the past. I've seen what happened when a lot of the soldiers of the war did so. Most developed crippling alcoholism within the first few months." Acier finished this with a slightly saddened tone before he continued the march forward with the rest of JNPR following after him with a slightly different opinion of the man ahead of them.

That was until Ren asked something, "Mr. Arc, how old are you?"

"I'll tell you this, since I don't feel like giving out my actual age, I'm older than a century and I'll leave it at that. I look pretty good for an old man, don't I?" Acier teased with a grin over his shoulder. The rest of the group besides Jaune were completely shocked at this information.

"How are you even still alive? You should be probably too old to look like you do right now." Ren asked quickly.

"You're probably right. Luckily, I'm different than most people. Really, the only reason that I'm still alive would be due in part to how my Semblance keeps me alive and kicking." Acier replied with a large grin, "It's quite funny actually, I'm probably going to live for a few more decades before I finally kick the bucket, until then, here I am."

"What is you Semblance?" Pyrrha asked.

"My Semblance is not an average one that would look to openly affect me with obvious interactions against the world. No, mine is much subtler. My Semblance is the concept of survivability. Or at least that's what I believe it to be. I still haven't completely figured it out just yet. All I know is that over all the years that I've lived, I should've died repeatedly during the multiple missions, battles, hunts, or anything else that I've been a part of, but I didn't. I came out almost unscathed, or if I was injured, I would always find a way to survive whatever it was that was about to kill me." Acier replied to Pyrrha as the grin on his face faded away.

"But how does that mean that you are still alive and looking good for a hundred-year-old?" Nora questioned.

"I don't know, as I told you, I still don't understand fully how my Semblance works. I only know one man in the world who has a Semblance that is close to mine. His would be that of bad luck." As the group slowly realized what this meant about the old man before them, Jaune thought about something completely different.

That different thought was asking how broken the man in front of them was after all of the decades of war that he'd been a part of? How many times must the man ahead of them wished to have died but somehow, he managed to survive out of all odds and possibilities? Having to be reminded of the fact that he would survive all of his friends must have hurt Acier after so long. By now, he'd learned to just hide it behind the mask of an excitable old man.

Jaune then looked down to Crocea at his side who was chatting quite avidly with Rips. The old sword was so similar to Acier in some ways. In others, Crocea showed more often how much his lifetime had affected him. Crocea and Acier, two old men that were just tired of everything that the world threw at them.

"How does someone have a Semblance of bad luck? That seems slightly absurd." Ren asked.

"You better not tell Qrow that. He would immediately prove you wrong with everything that can and will go wrong when he's nearby. At least Qrow figured out a way to cope with his Semblance after a while, I never really figured one that worked for a long enough time." Acier stated with a sense of disappointment.

"What do you mean cope?"

"I have been alive for a very long time, after a while, life experiences start getting to you if they are terrible enough. I'm thankful that I never turned to alcoholism since I saw it destroy potential huntsmen and huntresses. That's one of the things that your teachers never tell you about in school. The job gets to you if you do it long enough. Some drink, have a lot of sex, get high, or a hundred other little things that I can't account for. The unspoken task for any huntress or huntsmen worth their salt is finding a coping mechanism and sticking with it. This is due to every person on the job experiencing that one day that traumatizes them, with everything that can go wrong doing so, and then some." Acier sighed at this.

"Some people get so thoroughly broken due to that day that they quit afterwards, like your father Jaune," Said teen perked up at the mention of his name, "others try to soldier on through life after that day. Trust me on this, all of you will face that day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will eventually find yourself at that low point in your life. A good way to avoid this is to remember one thing: you can't save everyone."

As Acier said this, Jaune was immediately taken back to the day when he was told this same advice by Crocea. It had been a while since then, but Jaune kept that advice in his mind, and that advice he realized might save his life one day when it came down to it. Now this made Jaune think, what type of day did both Crocea and Acier have to face that would almost break them?

"Anyways, don't think too deeply on what I just said, who knows, you might be lucky and never have to deal with that day in question." Acier said in an effort to relieve the tension that the group was feeling. Regardless of what Acier said, the group was quite silent in contemplation at what they were told.

After a few minutes of silence, Acier held his hand out and the group stopped. "What is it?" Pyrrha asked. Acier in silent response let his gauntlet cover his entire arm which gave the entire group the hint to pull out their weapons.

"Ohh! I get to kill something!" The gauntlet screamed in happiness. Jaune still found the weapon to be quite creepy after all of this time.

"WHAT DO WE FIGHT NOW!? MAGNHILD READY FOR ANYTHING!" The hammer shouted.

"Calm yourself you idiot, you are so annoying during every single one of our battles." Milό growled out.

"Take heed to your own advice you overgrown spear. Let the big guy enjoy himself a little. After all, every battle is one that is meant to excite oneself." Crocea stated.

"I hate you with everything that I can possibly feel. You are an old man out of your prime, and the weapon on the waste-of-skin's side can attest to this. Just stay down old timer and let the real weapons do some work." Milό replied with an annoying smugness in his voice.

"Just be quiet you young shit. At least I'm comfortable in staying in just one form instead of constantly shifting to three like a whiny teenager." Crocea jested with some happiness at his form of comeuppance on the younger weapon.

Jaune tried to tune out the rest of the bantering between the weapons as he looked at the tall grass surrounding them. The grass around them was shifting as something moved in the grass towards them. A lot of things, really. The enemy finally revealed itself when it got close enough. And by close enough, they pounced out of the grass with a deathly cry.

The Grimm were all like extremely large black cats with elongated fangs, burning red eyes, and some pieces of white bone sticking out of their backs. Jaune and Pyrrha went back-to-back with their shields up and the Grimm pounded onto them. Then in synchronized retaliation, both warriors stabbed the Grimm through the skulls. More Grimm tried to strike the two down, but they killed each challenger that jumped at them.

Nora and Ren were fending for each other quite well, each teammate managed to cover one another's weaknesses and openings so that none of the Grimm were able to get even a single scratch or bite in. It was Acier that had the oddest fighting style out of the group. He fought alone in single combat against the Grimm that wished him dead. Each of his movements were flawless, nothing he did was a waste of energy, everything he did had purpose, and that purpose was the death of the creatures that dared to challenge him.

It was three minutes of fighting the Grimm before they stopped attacking head on and instead they began to encircle the group. "Everyone, form up!" Acier commanded. The group complied and formed into a tightly knit circle as they waited for the Grimm to attack. The tension in the moment was thick as the Grimm continued to circle the group until finally, the remaining Grimm pounced at the group and tried to finished them off in a final wave.

They were easily repelled by the group as none of the Grimm were the type to be able to fight on their own, they were pack hunters and most of their pack during the hunt had been destroyed. Due to this, putting the remaining Grimm down was quite easy for the group.

When they were finished, the group sheathed their weapons. "We need to keep moving. The Grimm in the area are bound to have heard that." Acier stated. With slightly more urgency, the group hurried their way to the large hill before stopping in front of a large patch of dirt with multiple different colored splotches in the ground. The dirt patch was about thirty feet in diameter which in Acier's eyes made it too unsafe for the group to use. "We'll have to go around. Come on."

The group then made their way as fast as they could around the dirt patch as the howls of Grimm got closer. About a hundred feet ahead of them, the grass began shifting. This shifting quickly surrounded the group in a half-circle with the group slowly being pushed towards the large patch of dirt, and the Grimm that resided within that patch of dirt.

"They certainly have gotten smarter. Nora, I need you on crowd control. You up for it?" Acier asked. Nora nodded and removed Magnhild from her back. She then began firing grenades into the Grimm while Acier looked back towards the patch of dirt. "Ren, Pyrrha, take potshots at any burrow that you can spot. We'll try to flush these things out of hiding." The two teens nodded and transformed their weapons into guns before firing at the tops of the dirt hatches.

After a few shots, the Grimm would open the hatch of dirt, this was swiftly followed by Pyrrha or Ren putting a bullet between the eight eyes of the Grimm which would let out a hiss before collapsing back into their burrow dead.

"Jaune, you are with me to take on any Grimm that gets past Nora. Now let's move." Quickly, Jaune and Acier took sides next to Nora and cut down any Grimm that came near. As they did so, Pyrrha spoke to the group.

"We've cleared a path, let's move!" Jaune, Nora, and Acier began backing up slowly before turning around in a full out sprint and running across the dirt patch where they were covered by Ren and Pyrrha firing upon the Grimm.

Eventually the group made it across the dirt patch while the remaining Grimm still in the tall grass retreated. When the group was finally finished crossing the dirt, they finally stepped back onto the grass of the hill where they all sighed in relief and collapsed.

"I never want to do that again." Jaune said while inhaling deep breaths.

"You and me both." Pyrrha replied.

"Ren, are you okay?" The two heard Nora ask. They turned to see the Ren was collapsed on his back breathing heavily. All that the dark-haired teen could respond in was moaning gasps. "We really need to work on your stamina, Ren." Nora said.

"Yeah, Ren, it's really not good that you get worn out so easily on the job. We'll definitely need to fix that during this week since that low stamina of yours could get you or one of your friends killed." Acier added. Ren just moaned in response. "Uhh, we can work on it later. Still, we just need to get over this hill and we'll be where we need to be." Acier said before getting up from where he was sitting.

"And where would we need to be?" Jaune asked.

"You'll have to see for yourselves. And trust me, you'll like it. It's a great place after all, as long as you avoid the Grimm trying to tear your eyes out or eat you, or drag you screaming under the ground where no one can hear you, you'll be fine. Now let's go." With that, Acier stood up and was followed by Jaune and Pyrrha. Nora had to lift Ren up herself and carried the teen over her shoulder like a log.

Then the group marched their way up the hill. When they made it to the top, they found most surprising of all was a small encampment at the bottom of the hill that contained four tents, a firepit at the center of the camp, and a few people milling about in it. "Are those people insane for living here, or is it just me?" Jaune questioned.

"They aren't completely insane. Just really…enthusiastic for the wild." Acier replied awkwardly.

"They're insane, aren't they?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh yes. Completely nuts. But they aren't that bad." Acier quickly responded.

* * *

 **Wow, this story isn't dead. What a surprise. This chapter took way too long to make, and I had a severe case of writer's block with this story. At least that's over now and I can add it to the roster of stories that I'm updating.**

 **So, let's just get it out there right now, I'm so sorry.**

 **Now that I've done so, I feel like we can continue on that merry little path we were treading before. Also, I hope you all had a good holiday, I know I did.**

 **Anyways, bit of a cliffhanger, but next chapter will be much longer and will finish off this vacation arc. Also, I have to say that I'm so happy that this story hit over a thousand favorites. All of you are awesome for that, and you should feel awesome because of it.**

 **Thanks all of you for the support you've been giving for this story, and I'll see you guys next time.**

 **Stay frost my friends.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer**

 **Chapter Fourteen: Vacation in the Lion's Den Part II**

* * *

 **Years Earlier**

* * *

 _It was a mass slaughter as Acier looked down upon the carnage that occurred before him. He was much younger, only twenty-five. His hair was a shaggy mess of gold while his blue eyes searched the battlefield for any sign of his friends._

 _With nothing found, Acier unslung his sword from his back with a weary look upon his face. This massive war had taken its toll upon him, both physically and mentally, but he pushed himself through it all. He had to, otherwise everyone would suffer much worse than he ever did._

 _Acier looked at his sword and smiled. Sally had put everything she had into making this weapon for him, and he wouldn't let her down by dying here today. After all, he had to come back to her._

 _With a sprint, Acier rushed into the battle cutting apart as many of the enemy soldiers as he could! The thrill of battle entered Acier as he cut down each enemy that he came across. Regardless of the rush he was feeling, Acier still wanted to find his friend._

 _Someone shouted from behind him, and Acier ducked just as the head of an axe arced over his head. Reversing his sword so that it the blade was behind him, Acier stabbed backwards with enough force to break the Aura of the man behind him. He heard a loud grunt as the man started collapsing which let Acier know to pull his blade out._

 _A quick flick of his wrist flung the blood off and Acier continued moving forwards. The battle still raged around him, but Acier kept scanning the field until his eyes zoned in on a man with a green lizard tail._

 _The man was chopping down all those around him with a bright silver tomahawk in his right hand. His left held a spiked cestus that was dripping blood. On the tip of his tail was a spiked ball attached by leather strips. It swung behind him and nailed anyone who was idiotic enough to go behind him._

" _Desmond!" Acier shouted as he waded through the bodies on the ground, and the enemies and allies on the field._

 _The Faunus turned to looked at Acier with a grin. "Come, the fight's just getting good!" Acier rushed over to Desmond just as the Faunus drove his tomahawk into a woman's skull._

" _Where've you been? I've been having to cover for all the kills that you've been missing!" Desmond shouted._

" _If you haven't noticed, there's a bit of a battle happening right now! Maybe next time I could just try asking the enemy to let me go through, or you know, just let them stab me a lot of times. That just might work." Acier said as he pushed some of his Aura into his legs and hopped over Desmond before smashing an armored man in the face._

 _Acier fell with the armored man to the ground and used the momentum of the fall to drive his sword in the man's throat. He then stood up and backed up to Desmond. "Back to back!" Acier ordered._

 _Soon enough, enemy soldiers began attacking the duo. While many tried to bring them down, the team kept on killing each of their enemies. Much of the reason for the piles of bodies that the two of them were making was due to their amount of skill._

 _This war had managed to kill so many skilled fighters, those that survived became stronger for it, while new soldiers that came into the war were basically fodder for the more skilled fighters. Acier and Desmond were two such fighters, they had been in this battle since the beginning, and they would be here to the end._

 _Acier noticed three fighters rushing at him. With a quick scan of them, Acier's eyes zoomed on one of the fighters who had a limp in his leg. He was also hold a broadsword with two hands that seemed very shaky. The weak link._

 _Acier pressed a button on his shield and it shrunk into a sheath. Then he took it off his arm and threw it at the limping fighter while hitting the button at the last second. This caused the sheath to start growing into a shield as it went between the weak link's arms and spread them apart which caused him to lose his grip on his sword._

 _With a sprint, Acier rushed at the man and gave a quick slash to his chest which dropped him. Acier caught his shield under the toe of his book and quickly kicked it towards the face of the second opponent, hitting her right in the mouth._

 _With that opponent distracted, he got in low and stabbed upwards through her jaw and into her brain. The last opponent tried to get a strike in with his halberd, but Acier twisted around and positioned the woman's corpse at the weapon. The halberd sunk deeply into the corpse and Acier used that as his chance to grab the shaft of the halberd to prevent it from moving._

 _It only took a moment to slice into the man's throat._

 _With that achieved, Acier picked up his shield and looked towards his teammate, Desmond. The Faunus was quite distracted with fighting a seven-foot-tall man with a massive sword almost as big as he was._

 _Acier felt his heart beating faster as Desmond's arms started shaking after blocking each blow of the massive sword. Rushing to his friend, he was about to try and get a stab into the giant._

 _Everything turned to ice when the giant parried Desmond's tomahawk away and in one fluid movement, stabbed his sword through Desmond's chest and raised him into the air._

 _The world turned to red for Acier as he screamed in rage and charged the giant. With a toss of his shield, Acier threw it right at the giant. He didn't expect for the man to catch the side of it with his hand, but it didn't matter, Acier distracted him enough to slide low onto the bloodstained grass and slice at the giant's achilles tendon._

 _A roar came from the massive man as he fell to his knee. Acier took this as his chance and stabbed his sword into the giant's brainstem. With a tug, Acier pulled his sword out and the giant toppled face first into the ground._

 _The blond rushed to Desmond's side and felt his heart stop when he noticed that Desmond wasn't breathing. Everything turned fuzzy for Acier when this happened. After the battle, the only thing that Acier remembered was the screams and blood that followed quickly after._

* * *

The group made their way down the hill and towards the encampment. While Acier seemed completely relaxed and at ease, the four huntsmen and huntresses in training were all nervously glancing around the area for any large amounts of Grimm. Ten feet outside the perimeter of the encampment were patches of tall grass that ran around the encampment in a circle and stopped at the hill that the group was on.

While there may have once been more tall grass that would've been closer to the camp, the area surrounding it showed signs of having been set on fire to destroy the grass and prevent Grimm from being able to sneak up closer to the camp.

As the group stepped foot into the burned perimeter, a mound of the ground popped up. The teens were all on guard with everyone aiming their weapons at the mound until a turret made itself know from the mound. "Alright you Grimm shits, time to make you cheddar!" The turret cried out. The minute the first turret popped up, twenty more that had all been buried like the first made their presence known and all took aim at the group.

"Time to kill Grimm, battle brothers!" Another turret cried out from the rest, the other turrets said similar lines as they all showed massive signs of bloodlust.

"Guess this is how these guys survived out here." Jaune whispered to his team.

"W-wait, it's only people, battle brothers!" The first turret announced in disappointment. The other turrets whined in disappointment before they all slunk back into the ground where the patches of dirt covered them once more.

"That's a nice greeting." Crocea sarcastically stated.

"I hate dealing with turrets, so uncivilized." Milὸ complained.

"TURRETS ARE FRIENDS! CAUSE MUCH DESTRUCTION AND MAYHEM! JUST LIKE LITTLE GIRL!" Magnhild exclaimed excitedly.

"Only to you. Those turrets seemed pretty tame compared to what I've seen." Crocea's voice then took on a deeper and more fearful tone, "On a hill, all those turrets screaming rata-tat-tat, over and over." Jaune didn't understand what would cause his sword to go into war flashbacks, then again, he didn't really want to know.

"Hey, is this what you call a greeting?" Acier shouted to the men and women who were still by their tents. Most just shrugged and went back to whatever tasks that they were performing earlier. One of the group, a man whose face was a patchwork of scars and claw marks, walked over to the five.

The man was easily over six feet and if the scars didn't tip the group off to his status as a professional, the large cords of muscles that made up his arms and chest did. Didn't help that he was only wearing a small chestplate that barely covered anything more than his abs, _not very protective_ , Jaune thought to himself.

At his hip was a large scimitar that may have once been painted red, now most of the paint was faded due to wear. Jaune heard nothing from the weapon except very loud snoring.

"Acier, still kicking I see." The man remarked as he looked over the older man's shoulder, "And you brought a lot of kids. You do realize that this is a deadzone, correct?"

"I know what I'm doing, Cross. And besides, these kids can take care of themselves. I decided that the best thing to do when training new huntsmen and huntresses would be to bring them out into a real warzone. Teaches them more than the pitiful forest near Beacon." Acier responded.

Cross grinned at this, "You really are crazy enough to live with us!" Cross held his hand out to Acier who shook it. "Though I don't know about the kids. How long are they staying here, cause we don't do babysitting."

"We're here for a week. Kids gotta get back to school sometime or later." Acier said with a grin.

"Cross certainly got a few new scars since the last time I saw him." Crocea remarked. Jaune's eyebrow lifted at the news.

"How many scars did he have before?" Jaune asked in a hushed tone.

"Well, he didn't look like something tore him apart and stitched him back together, that's for certain. Guess the Grimm have been tough recently."

Milὸ quickly interrupted when he heard this, "Wait, that's how bad Cross has been injured? What the hell is even living in this place?!"

"Well, if the Stalkers didn't ambush you in the grass, and the Hatchtraps didn't drag you into their burrows, then you would have to deal with the Skitters and the rare Nevermore. That's just during the daytime." Crocea answered.

"What the hell are all those names you dropped? I've never heard of Grimm called by those names." Milὸ asked. Even the haughty weapon seemed slightly nervous at whatever was out in this landscape.

"Stalkers are the puma creatures that we ran away from. Hatchtraps would be the spiders that burrow, and the Skitters, well, imagine them as the smaller cousin of the Hatchtrap. They scurry at the bottom of the grass and wait in ambush for a person to pass by. Then, they shoot out some webs at your feet and drag you through the grass kicking and screaming until you are brought to their den. Then they wrap you up and hang you from the ceiling and drain out your fluids if they are feeling bored. If not, you're gonna be hanging until you starve to death." Jaune's eyes widened at Crocea's explanation.

They seriously had to deal with Grimm like that? What the hell was this place?

"Oh, and at night the real monsters come out to play. Devourers, and Finger Drinkers are the real terrors out there. Imagine great spiders, the size of houses that tunnel underground during the day and sprout from the ground at night. They are hard to kill, and even if you try to track them during the day, the tunnels they make are so complex that you'd get lost in the darkness."

Crocea sighed before adding, "Finger drinkers, they are these black monkeys that usually cling to trees during the day. They'll come down if they see any traveler resting beneath their tree. Then they'll put their hands on the poor traveler's throat and use suckers attached to them to drain the poor victim of all their blood. You'll find them wandering around their tree at night, hunting."

"What has your idiot grandfather brought us all into?" Milὸ demanded.

Jaune really didn't want to answer that question, since even he had no real idea of what Acier was planning. All he and his team knew was that they were here for training. If this was training, then what was Acier's idea of an actual mission?

"Since it's midday, I think that lunch would be in order. You're all hungry, right?" Cross asked. The group nodded enthusiastically to the question. "That's good, cause if you weren't you'd probably have to wait till night before eating again. Food in this area is scarce because the Grimm keep on getting into fights over territory with the animals. This place is also shit for farming. Soil's just bad."

Cross then led the group towards the center of the encampment where they noticed a hatch in the center. With ease, Cross lifted the heavy-looking steel hatch open which revealed a hole with rungs for a ladder attached to the side of a wall made of cement and reinforced with steel rebar. It wasn't a dark hole, in fact, there were lightbulbs that went down to the bottom.

"Food is at the bottom. I'll see all of you up here in an hour. If Acier wants all of you to learn about what it takes to survive out here, then I'll certainly show you." Cross informed the group. Jaune's eye twitched at how they were expected to go into that bunker just after Crocea talked about those Goliaths that would tunnel underground.

"Uhh, Cross, sir, why are you living underground if there are Devourers in the area?!" Jaune quickly asked. He didn't see the odds of their group surviving if a Devourer decided to tunnel into that bunker.

"At least one of you is knowledgeable about what lives out here." Cross said in appreciation, "But you don't have to worry. This bunker has titanium slabs two feet thick that are all but impenetrable. Sure, we've had a few nights where some Devourer would get it in their head to try and bust into the bunker, but they give up quickly or die trying to break through our walls."

Even with the reassurance from Cross, Jaune was still not convinced. "Mr. Cross, what are Devourers?" Pyrrha asked in confusion.

"Big…Fuckin'…Spiders." Was all Cross would say. He then walked over to one of the tents and sat down on a cot where he unsheathed his scimitar and started to sharpen it with a whetstone.

Pyrrha shivered slightly before calming down once again. Jaune felt the same way as Pyrrha, he didn't like spiders at the best of times, this just magnified that feeling by a ridiculous amount.

The first one to enter the bunker was Acier who did so without any obvious worries. He was followed by Nora, then Ren, and finally Jaune and Pyrrha. As Jaune climbed down each rung of the ladder, he thought that the walls of this bunker didn't seem that protective in the long run.

"You worried, Jaune?" Crocea asked.

"Slightly. I just feel like something is going to go horribly wrong. Is that a normal feeling?" Jaune wondered. Crocea gave a hum of approval at this.

"I would be afraid if you weren't. You must realize that bad things could happen at any moment, but it's okay to relax before then. If you don't, you're going to become a paranoid wreck that hardly does anything with their life." Crocea answered.

"Makes me feel so much better." Jaune replied sarcastically as he finally made it to the bottom of the ladder.

"It's what I'm here for, laddie." Crocea happily stated. Jaune groaned as he looked around the bunker that they were in. It was one large metal room with three rooms splitting off it. Each room was clearly labeled with black lettering bunks, supplies, and weapons. In the room that they were in now, there was a table with an assortment of cooking supplies and a steaming pot that had a man tending to it.

The table had no obvious signs of there being a stove on it, until Jaune noticed that the man's hand was glowing like superheated metal. "Is that guy's Semblance hot hands?" Jaune asked quietly to Crocea.

"Well, more like hot arms. He can superheat his arms to a ridiculous degree, but the only downside would be that he can't wear anything with sleeves. Usually burns them off by accident." Crocea replied.

"Hey, hot stuff, is the food ready?" Acier asked. This caught the attention of the man who looked up at Acier with coal black eyes that seemed like they were glowing with heat. He had slicked back gray hair and was wearing only a leather apron, like those used by blacksmiths, for a shirt.

"And I thought that I'd given you up for dead. You still kicking, old man?" The gray-haired man asked. He stirred the contents of the pot once more before pulling a wooden spoon out.

"Ha ha, guess you developed a sense of humor in your old age after all." Acier said with a roll of his eyes.

"Is that so? It seemed to me that a corpse who is pretending to still be alive entered this bunker with a bunch of children. Do I need to call the authorities and alert them about a possible predator?" The man retorted. "Or maybe I should just get an exorcist?"

"That almost might've hurt this corpse's heart if it still had one. I didn't think that senility would be the first thing that hit you in old age, but I guess beggars can't be choosers." The two older men looked at one another, and to Team JNPR, it seemed like they were about to get into a brawl, but then, the two of them started laughing.

"Is this normal?" Pyrrha asked quietly. Jaune looked down to Crocea with a questioning look.

"Pretty much. Vonk is one of the oldest in this group, last time I was here. Acier and Vonk would constantly make fun of all the younger members of this camp." Crocea chuckled at the memories, "He is completely insane though, and has a huge case of arachnophobia, so whatever you do, don't bring up talk of spiders around him."

"Why? Will he start trying to hide?" Jaune asked.

"No, he'll just go into a rage and try to burn down anything that he perceives as triggering his phobia. Other than that, nice guy, and one of the few people here that doesn't use a weapon. Fists are all he needs." Crocea explained.

With that knowledge, Jaune quickly relayed to Pyrrha and the others, "It's normal. Apparently, he's an old friend of Grandpa's."

With that said, Nora quickly made her way over to where the pot was cooking and began drooling in hunger. "Is the food ready?" She quickly asked.

Vonk pulled out a bowl and quickly scooped out some stew for Nora. He put a spoon into the bowl and handed it to the hyper girl. Quickly, she began scooping the stew into her mouth and swallowed it.

"That was terrible! What type of ingredients do you put into this to make it that awful? It's like food from a dumpster, not that food from a dumpster always tastes bad, but still!" Nora immediately complained.

"Nora, don't be rude!" Ren chastised. Nora quickly turned to Ren.

"But it really is bad. I don't even know why it should taste this bad!" She replied. Behind her, Vonk just shrugged his shoulders as he made a few more bowls for the group.

"Understand, pinky, most things out here that are edible are pretty shit to eat. This isn't a place where you can complain about food since there's so little of it. What you do is suck it up or you starve. And trust me, starvation and dehydration are the things that usually kill you out here." Vonk sighed at this, "Should've stayed in Vacuo. That desert is more hospitable than these plains."

"We know a few guys from Vacuo. They didn't talk much about the place." Nora piped up.

"Not much to say about the place. It's a shithole that only the strong survive in. Ace knows a lot about it, he was one of the bigger troublemakers roaming there years ago." Vonk grinned as his said this, "So many barfights were caused by this guy. Usually over women."

"I think that talking about my being chivalrous is not the greatest topic to bring up." Acier mumbled.

"Sure it isn't. What was that woman that you were always getting drunk over? Selena? Sarah? Sa-"

"It was Sally." Acier quickly answered. Jaune's ears perked up at this. He knew who that woman was, that was the name of his grandmother, someone that his Grandpa rarely if ever brought up in a conversation. The only reason Jaune knew anything about Grandma Sally was due to his dad answering some questions about her when he had asked.

All his dad would saw was that Grandma Sally died in a Grimm attack when he was younger, almost the age of eight. Besides that, nothing really.

"I remember Sally, she was pretty nice. Even fixed me up once." Rips chirped out from Jaune's belt. Jaune slightly jumped due to how quiet the tomahawk had been this entire time.

"Yeah, she was." Crocea quietly agreed.

"What happened to her? Did she do alright after the war? I mean, she was good at fixing up weapons, I mean, look at you for instance. She must've gotten a job as a blacksmith, or something along those lines." Rips pondered.

"She died a long time ago. Grimm got her, and that was the last we saw of her. I would rather not talk about it." Crocea finished. Jaune listened to all of this in silence as he got himself a bowl of the terrible stew that Vonk had made.

It was something more that he knew about his Grandma now. Even Crocea was upset about it. Maybe he would try to ask Acier one day, but right now didn't seem like a good idea. It would still bother him with not knowing.

Vonk brought Jaune out of his thoughts with a question, "What are all of you planning to do once you finish eating lunch? If you are all here for training, this bunker isn't the best place to learn. It would be out there," Vonk pointed upwards, "And this isn't the safest place for kids." Vonk added.

"Cross plans to take us out for an excursion after we finish eating. These kids will get to see what fighting Grimm is really like after today, especially with them encountering the Stalker pack when we first got here." Acier replied.

"Then I wish you all good luck, you'll need it if you are planning to stay here for any length of time. Also, don't go outside the camp perimeter at night, there are a few trees around here that we suspect have Finger Suckers living in them." When Vonk said his advice, he walked out of the room and into the one labeled Bunks.

This left the small group alone to themselves.

"What are Finger Suckers?" Nora asked.

"Just wondering, do you like monkeys?" Acier replied.

* * *

 **Okay, that was a long time coming. Sorry about the wait, School has been taking up my time along with writer's block, this also contributed to the chapter being a bit shorter than I'm used to. Other than that, I have my update schedule ready for what I'm going to do next, just so people don't get antsy. If we are lucky, within the next week, I'll update GToR first, and then follow it by the week after with AYWMS.**

 **Yeah, my time's just been getting taken which is really pressing on me ability to write and stay on one specific project. I hope to do better for you guys, so we'll see what happens.**

 **Also, I hope that one of you can guess the Grimm in this chapter that is very closely related to a certain folklore horror monster. To give you a hint, think west-eastern. Just let that little thought go through all of your heads.**

 **Now, omake…**

* * *

Ruby and Team JNPR dashed towards the landing pads that still had a few Bulkheads remaining on them. All around them, the small group could see students being attacked by other students and infected by them. It was complete chaos.

Thankfully, the small group hadn't been noticed yet and were able to make their way to the Bulkheads quite easily. The real issue was when they entered a Bulkhead and made their way to the flight controls.

"Does anyone know how to fly this?" Jaune asked. The other teens shook their heads and a feeling of fear crept into all of them. "I guess I'll see what I can do." Jaune said with a false sense of bravado as he took a seat in the pilot chair and started pressing buttons.

"C'mon Jaune, we need to take off!" Ruby said with urgency. That was when all of them heard a buzzing coming from the pocket of Ruby's skirt. She quickly pulled out her Scroll and opened it. "H-Hello, who is it?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby," The voice of Yang answered in a calm and meticulous tone that was completely unlike her, "I just had a chat with Weiss and Blake. They found it quite agreeable, and now we want to talk to you. Just wait where you are so that we can find you." Ruby quickly shut off her scroll and looked at everyone with fearful eyes.

"She got them…" Ruby trailed off before going into a corner of the Bulkhead and sitting down in silence. She seemed broken at this knowledge, but Jaune tried to ignore it in favor of getting the Bulkhead started.

With a flick of the switch, the bulkhead roared to life. "Let's get out of here!" Jaune announced to the group as he pulled up on the controls which lifted the Bulkhead into the air and shut the doors on it.

They needed to get to someplace safe.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed that. I'll try to do better for you all next time. Anyways, stay frosty my friends.**


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